Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
The substitute specification filed 10 December 2025 has been reviewed, found acceptable and has replaced the original specification.
The substitute drawings filed on 10 December 2025 has been reviewed, found acceptable and has replaced the original drawings.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the “cold plate” in claim 1, line 7, must be shown or the features canceled from the claim, respectively. No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Objections
Claim 7 is objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 7 line 2, “one one set” should correctly read as -- one set --.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 2-7 and 9-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as failing to set forth the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant regards as the invention.
In claim 2, lines 1 and 3, and in claim 3 line 1, note that it is unclear which one of the “multiple” connectors or amplifiers would be intended by the recitation of the singular “connector” or “amplifier”.
In claims 4, 5, 7, 9, 14-18, note that it is unclear how the “at least two Lange couplers and at least one Wilkinson coupler”, as recited in at least these claims would relate to the like wording already recited in independent claim 1 (i.e.one in the same feature, separate and distinct features, etc.).
In claims 6, 19, 20, note that it is unclear how
In claims 7, 10, note that it is unclear in what way the combining module is considered “multiplexed”.
In claims 10-12, note that it is unclear how each “set of at least two Lange couplers” would relate to the “at least two Lange couplers” recited in independent claim 1.
Claims 8, 13, 19-20 are rejected due to their dependency on the rejected independent claim 1.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-5, 7, and 9-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (US 9065163 B1) in view of Grebennikov et al. (US 20100093293 A1), hereafter referred to as “Wu” and “Grebennikov”, respectively.
Regarding claims 1, 2, 3, 11, 12, and 13, in the embodiment of Fig. 17, Wu discloses:
A planar combiner system for a solid-state amplifier (Wu, Figs. 15A, 17), comprising:
a base (base plate shown in Fig. 15A, as described in column 12 lines 10-15) having thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity (base plate inherently contains these properties), the base being configured to directly contact a cold plate (Wu, column 12 lines 10-19, Power amplifier is mounted on a thermal base plate with a cooling system); at least one division module fabricated in planar form (Fig. 15A, column 5, lines 46-53, power combiner 800 and input divider 1516 could be placed onto a common planar thermal heat sink) on the base and configured to divide a radio frequency input signal (Fig. 17, IN) into multiple channels of equal power (Fig. 17, 4-Way/8-Way Divider); multiple power amplifiers, each having an input coupled to a respective output of the division module (multiple amplifiers, as shown in Fig. 17) and an output providing an amplified signal; at least one combining module (4-Way/8-Way Combiner) fabricated in planar form on the base and configured to combine the amplified signals to a radio frequency output (Fig. 17, OUT); multiple connectors configured as an electrical connection in a form of a cable, microstrip, or stripline (column 11, lines 60-64, input power dividers may use traditional transmission line (e.g. microstrip or stripline) as per claim 3 and 13), arranged to carry more than four divided signals of equal power between the division module to the input of more than four power amplifiers (as shown in Fig. 17, 8-way divider, per claims 2, 11, and 12), and the combining module (connections between dividers, amplifiers and combiners are shown in Fig. 17); and multiple planar connection paths on the base to transport signals between couplers with minimum power loss (Figs. 15A, divider 1516 shows multiple connections to amplifier modules 1514 and power combiner 800, Solid State Power Amplifier benefits by the low loss of hollow core waveguide combining
However, Wu is silent in teaching at least two Lange couplers included in at least one of the division and combining modules, respectively.
Grebennikov teaches:
a combining module including at least two Lange couplers and at least one Wilkinson coupler (Fig. 6, Lange couplers 182 and 184 and power combiner 150 that can be implement with a Wilkinson combiner per paragraph [0037] lines 1-2, per claims 1, 4, 5, 7, 9-12, 14-18).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to replace the generic division or combining module of Wu (Fig. 17) with the specific combining module including a Wilkinson divider in conjunction with two Lange couplers as taught by Grebennikov (Fig. 6, 182, 184, and 150), to provide the benefit and advantage of a wider bandwidth (Grebennikov, paragraph [0039], lines 3-5), thereby suggesting the obviousness of such a combination. Moreover, with respect to claims, 4, 5, 9, and 14-18, it would have been further obvious in view of the references, taken as a whole, to further modify the resultant combination such that the two Lange couplers of Grebennikov to be either symmetric to provide for equal power division (e.g. as per claims 4, 9, 14, 15) or asymmetric to provide for unequal power division (e.g. as per claims 5, 9, 16-18) between input and output ports, as known to one of ordinary skill in the art, thereby suggesting the obviousness of such a further modification. Regarding claims 7, 10-12 note that as an obvious consequence of the resultant modification, for each set of dividers/combiners in the 8-way divider/combiner, there would necessarily be a set of two Lange coupler in each set of the 8-way divider/combiner.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 8 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MALANE LIENG whose telephone number is (571)272-5739. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 6:30 - 4:00 CST.
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/MALANE LIENG/Examiner, Art Unit 2843
/ANDREA LINDGREN BALTZELL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2843
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