DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-4 and 7-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Liu (2020/0219828A1).
With regard to claims 1,2 and 8, Liu discloses An integrated circuit (IC) device, comprising: a first signal pad 102; a first inductor 130 coupled in series with the first signal pad 102; a first set of primary ESD diodes 132 coupled to the first signal pad 102 and a first side of the first inductor 130; and a first set of secondary ESD diodes 133 coupled to a second side of the first inductor 130 (see para 0028).
With regard to claim 3, para 0028 discloses different junction areas for the first and second diode sets 132 and 133, with the area directly related to the amount of ESD protection provided.
With regard to claims 4 and 9, para 0028 discloses that the different areas for ESD diodes 132 and 133 are used to establish different capacitive loads for the first and second (primary and secondary) diode sets.
With regard to claim 7, in para 0042, Liu discloses a frequency range extending to 40 Ghz.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15-20 are allowed.
Claims 5,6 and 10-14 are 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: in the above mentioned claims the combination of N and P type diodes with a resistor connected to a junction between the diode types and the signal pad, and the transformer limitations of claim 15, have not been taught or been fairly suggested by the prior art of record.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to STEPHEN W JACKSON whose telephone number is (571)272-2051. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 6:30-3:00.
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SWJackson
August 20, 2026
/STEPHEN W JACKSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838
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