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 .
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed March 10, 2026 has been entered. Claims 1-20 remain pending in the application. Applicant’s amendments to the specification, drawings, and claims have overcome each and every objection and rejection previously presented in the Non-Final Office Action mailed February 10, 2026, with one exception outlined below.
The objection to the drawings regarding reference character 650 in Paragraph 89 of the specification was not addressed in applicant’s amendments, and therefore the objection remains.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 11-13, filed March 10, 2026, with respect to the rejections of claims 1-20 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejections have been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new grounds of rejection is made in view of previously presented prior art reference Tanzil et al. (Patent Number US 12,456,995 B2), hereafter referred to as Tanzil.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to as failing to comply with 37 CFR 1.84(p)(5) because they include the following reference character not mentioned in the description: “740” (Fig. 7C).
The drawings are objected to as failing to comply with 37 CFR 1.84(p)(5) because they do not include the following reference sign mentioned in the description: “650” (Paragraph 89, line 5).
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d), or amendment to the specification to add the reference characters in the description in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(b) 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. 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 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, 10, 12, and 14-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Weber et al. (Patent Publication Number US 2020/0186103 A1), hereafter referred to as Weber, in view of McMahon et al. (Patent Publication Number EP 4,140,398 A1), hereafter referred to as McMahon, and Tanzil.
Regarding claim 1, Weber discloses:
A method of digital predistortion initialization (Weber, Figs. 6-8), the method comprising: receiving an original propagated electrical signal resulting from a modified input electrical signal that pre-compensates for the nonlinear channel (Fig. 6, see signal output from identification unit 671), such that transmitting the modified input electrical signal through the nonlinear channel results in a modified output electrical signal having reduced distortions relative to the nonlinear distortions in the original propagated electrical signal (Fig. 7, Step 706); using the original multi-tone electrical signal and the modified input electrical signal to determine nonlinear filter coefficients for a nonlinear filter (Fig. 7, Step 704), that reduces nonlinear distortions in an output electrical signal from the nonlinear channel when the nonlinear filter is applied to an input electrical signal, input into the nonlinear channel, to perform predistortion prior to the transmission of the input electrical signal through the nonlinear channel (Fig. 7, Step 704); and wherein the modified input electrical signal is determined using an iterative process that adapts the modified input electrical signal to reduce levels of intermodulation distortions in the modified output electrical signal (Fig. 8, see Steps 803-808), but fails to disclose an original multi-tone electrical signal input into a nonlinear channel; determining [the modified input electrical signal]; wherein determining nonlinear coefficients for the nonlinear filter is based on the modified input electrical signal and the original multi-tone electrical signal having multiple simultaneous tones, wherein the intermodulation distortions are based on the multiple simultaneous tones.
However, McMahon teaches an original multi-tone electrical signal input into a nonlinear channel; determining [the modified input electrical signal] (McMahon, Paragraph 119, lines 2-5); wherein determining nonlinear coefficients for the nonlinear filter is based on the modified input electrical signal and the original multi-tone electrical signal having multiple simultaneous tones (Paragraph 119, lines 2-5), but fails to teach wherein the intermodulation distortions are based on the multiple simultaneous tones.
However, Tanzil teaches wherein the intermodulation distortions are based on the multiple simultaneous tones (Tanzil, Col. 5, lines 24-34 and 41-43).
Weber, McMahon, and Tanzil are all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Weber to incorporate the teachings of McMahon and Tanzil to include the multi-tone input signal of McMahon in the circuit of Weber, which would have the effect of improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the circuit of Weber (McMahon, Paragraph 20, lines 5-6 and 16), and to include the intermodulation distortion compensation of Tanzil in the circuit of Weber, which would have the effect of providing additional non-linear distortion compensation for the circuit of Weber (Tanzil, Col. 5, lines 24-34 and 41-43).
Regarding claim 10, Weber further discloses:
wherein determining the coefficients for the nonlinear filter further includes determining the nonlinear filter coefficients to reduce nonlinear distortions that arise, at least in part, from a power amplifier in the nonlinear channel (Weber, Fig. 7, see steps 701, 704), such that the nonlinear distortions, which are reduced by the nonlinear filter, include compression and/or saturation of the power amplifier (Paragraph 2, lines 8-16).
Regarding claim 12, Weber further discloses:
wherein determining the nonlinear coefficients for the nonlinear filter includes that the nonlinear channel has a memory (Weber, Paragraph 60, lines 1-5), the nonlinear filter comprises a memory polynomial (Paragraph 59, lines 16-21), and determining the nonlinear coefficients for the nonlinear filter includes setting coefficients of the memory polynomial to values that reduce the nonlinear distortions with the memory (Paragraph 60, lines 1-5), and the values of the coefficients of the memory polynomial being determined using a system of linear equations that relates the coefficients of the memory polynomial, the input electrical signal, and a modified input electrical signal (Paragraph 60, lines 5-11), wherein the modified input electrical signal is an electrical signal that, when input to the nonlinear channel, reduces the nonlinear distortions and/or intermodulation distortion components in the output electrical signal from the nonlinear channel (Paragraph 60, lines 5-7).
Regarding claim 14, Weber discloses:
A method of reducing distortion in an electrical signal for wireless transmission (Weber, Figs. 6-8), the method comprising: transmitting the multi-tone electrical signal through a nonlinear channel to generate an output electrical signal at an output of the nonlinear channel (Fig. 6, consider signal through power amplifier 661), the nonlinear channel causing linear distortions and nonlinear distortions in the output electrical signal (Paragraph 63, lines 24-28); detecting, in the output electrical signal, intermodulation distortion components, the first frequency component, and the second frequency component (Paragraph 63, lines 1-7); and determining coefficients of a digital predistortion processor based on the intermodulation distortion components, the first frequency component, the second frequency component, and the phases of the intermodulation distortion components, the first frequency component, and the second frequency component (Paragraph 63, lines 11-16), wherein the digital predistortion processor reduces the intermodulation distortion components in the output electrical signal (Paragraph 63, lines 21-34), but fails to disclose generating a multi-tone electrical signal comprising a first portion and a second portion, the first portion having at least a first frequency component and a second frequency component, and the second portion having a synchronization signal; using the synchronization signal to measure, in the output electrical signal, phases of the intermodulation distortion components, the first frequency component, and the second frequency component, wherein the intermodulation distortions are based on the first frequency component and the second frequency component.
However, McMahon further teaches generating a multi-tone electrical signal comprising a first portion and a second portion (McMahon, Paragraph 119, lines 2-5), the first portion having at least a first frequency component (Paragraph 119, lines 2-5, consider first frequency of frequency pair) and a second frequency component (Paragraph 119, lines 2-5, consider second frequency of frequency pair), and the second portion having a synchronization signal (Paragraph 120, lines 10-11); using the synchronization signal to measure, in the output electrical signal, phases of the intermodulation distortion components, the first frequency component, and the second frequency component (Paragraph 120, lines 14-15), but fails to teach wherein the intermodulation distortions are based on the first frequency component and the second frequency component.
However, Tanzil teaches wherein the intermodulation distortions are based on the first frequency component and the second frequency component (Tanzil, Col. 5, lines 24-34 and 41-43).
Weber, McMahon, and Tanzil are all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Weber to incorporate the teachings of McMahon and Tanzil to include the multi-tone input signal of McMahon in the circuit of Weber, which would have the effect of improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the circuit of Weber (McMahon, Paragraph 20, lines 5-6 and 16), and to include the intermodulation distortion compensation of Tanzil in the circuit of Weber, which would have the effect of providing additional non-linear distortion compensation for the circuit of Weber (Tanzil, Col. 5, lines 24-34 and 41-43).
Regarding claim 15, Weber fails to disclose:
wherein the synchronization signal comprises a pseudo-random noise sequence, and the measuring of the phases in the output electrical signal includes using the synchronization signal to time align the intermodulation distortion components, the first frequency component, and the second frequency component.
However, McMahon further teaches wherein the synchronization signal comprises a pseudo-random noise sequence (McMahon, Paragraph 215, lines 1-3), and the measuring of the phases in the output electrical signal includes using the synchronization signal to time align the intermodulation distortion components, the first frequency component, and the second frequency component (Paragraph 120, lines 10-15).
Weber, McMahon, and Tanzil are all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Weber to incorporate the teachings of McMahon to include the multi-tone input signal of McMahon in the circuit of Weber, which would have the effect of improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the circuit of Weber (McMahon, Paragraph 20, lines 5-6 and 16).
Regarding claim 16, Weber fails to disclose:
wherein the generating of the multi-tone electrical signal is repeated using respective frequency pairs for the first frequency component and the second frequency component, the respective frequency pairs having different center frequencies and having different frequency spacings between the first frequency component and the second frequency component.
However, McMahon further teaches wherein the generating of the multi-tone electrical signal is repeated using respective frequency pairs for the first frequency component and the second frequency component (McMahon, Paragraph 118, lines 1-3, and Paragraph 119, lines 3-5), the respective frequency pairs having different center frequencies and having different frequency spacings between the first frequency component and the second frequency component (Paragraph 119, lines 2-5).
Weber, McMahon, and Tanzil are all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Weber to incorporate the teachings of McMahon to include the multi-tone input signal of McMahon in the circuit of Weber, which would have the effect of improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the circuit of Weber (McMahon, Paragraph 20, lines 5-6 and 16).
Regarding claim 17, Weber fails to disclose:
wherein the generating of the multi-tone electrical signal is repeated using respective frequency pairs for the first frequency component and the second frequency component, the respective frequency pairs having frequencies that are spaced apart by integer multiples of a predefined frequency period ω0.
However, McMahon further teaches wherein the generating of the multi-tone electrical signal is repeated using respective frequency pairs for the first frequency component and the second frequency component (McMahon, Paragraph 118, lines 1-3, and Paragraph 119, lines 3-5), the respective frequency pairs having frequencies that are spaced apart by integer multiples of a predefined frequency period ω0 (Paragraph 102, lines 1-4).
Weber, McMahon, and Tanzil are all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Weber to incorporate the teachings of McMahon to include the multi-tone input signal of McMahon in the circuit of Weber, which would have the effect of improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the circuit of Weber (McMahon, Paragraph 20, lines 5-6 and 16).
Regarding claim 18, Weber fails to disclose:
wherein the generating of the multi-tone electrical signal is repeated using respective frequency pairs for the first frequency component and the second frequency component, wherein frequencies of the respective frequency pairs span a predefined frequency range, and bandwidths of the respective frequency pairs span another predefined frequency range.
However, McMahon further teaches wherein the generating of the multi-tone electrical signal is repeated using respective frequency pairs for the first frequency component and the second frequency component (McMahon, Paragraph 118, lines 1-3, and Paragraph 119, lines 3-5), wherein frequencies of the respective frequency pairs span a predefined frequency range (Paragraph 119, lines 4-5), and bandwidths of the respective frequency pairs span another predefined frequency range (Paragraph 59, lines 1-5).
Weber, McMahon, and Tanzil are all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Weber to incorporate the teachings of McMahon to include the multi-tone input signal of McMahon in the circuit of Weber, which would have the effect of improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the circuit of Weber (McMahon, Paragraph 20, lines 5-6 and 16).
Claims 2-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Weber in view of McMahon and Tanzil as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Haas et al. (Patent Number US 10,396,723 B1), hereafter referred to as Haas.
Regarding claim 2, Weber and McMahon fail to disclose:
wherein the nonlinear channel has a nonlinear distortion portion, followed in sequence by a second linear distortion portion, an output electrical signal having second linear distortions, below a predetermined threshold, due to the second linear distortion portion, after processing by the nonlinear channel.
However, Haas teaches wherein the nonlinear channel has a nonlinear distortion portion, (Haas, Fig. 4, 64) followed in sequence by a second linear distortion portion (Fig. 4, 66), an output electrical signal having second linear distortions, below a predetermined threshold, due to the second linear distortion portion, after processing by the nonlinear channel (Fig. 4, consider distortion of filter 66, and lack of linear filter in Weber).
Weber, McMahon, Tanzil, and Haas are all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Weber to incorporate the teachings of Haas to include the nonlinear channel of Haas as the nonlinear channel of Weber, which would have the effect of providing a well-known model of a power amplifier for digital predistortion (Haas, Col. 7, lines 50-53).
Regarding claim 3, Weber and McMahon fail to disclose:
wherein the second linear distortion portion inherently results in the original propagated electrical signal having the second linear distortions below the predetermined threshold.
However, Haas further teaches wherein the second linear distortion portion inherently results in the original propagated electrical signal having the second linear distortions below the predetermined threshold (Haas, Fig. 4, consider linear filter 66 having a predetermined distortion level below the threshold level).
Weber, McMahon, Tanzil, and Haas are all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Weber to incorporate the teachings of Haas to include the nonlinear channel of Haas as the nonlinear channel of Weber, which would have the effect of providing a well-known model of a power amplifier for digital predistortion (Haas, Col. 7, lines 50-53).
Regarding claim 4, Weber further discloses:
further comprising predistorting the original propagated electrical signal into the nonlinear channel (Weber, Fig. 6, see signal output from identification unit 671), but fails to disclose based on the second linear distortion portion to cause the original propagated electrical signal to be a first corrected signal having the second linear distortions below the predetermined threshold.
However, Haas further teaches based on the second linear distortion portion to cause the original propagated electrical signal to be a first corrected signal having the second linear distortions below the predetermined threshold (Haas, Fig. 4, consider linear filter 66 having a predetermined distortion level below the threshold level).
Weber, McMahon, Tanzil, and Haas are all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Weber to incorporate the teachings of Haas to include the nonlinear channel of Haas as the nonlinear channel of Weber, which would have the effect of providing a well-known model of a power amplifier for digital predistortion (Haas, Col. 7, lines 50-53).
Claims 5-7 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Weber in view of McMahon, Tanzil, and Haas as applied to claim 4 above, and further in view of Monsen et al. (Patent Publication Number US 2016/0359552 A1), hereafter referred to as Monsen.
Regarding claim 5, Weber, McMahon, and Haas fail to disclose:
further comprising: determining coefficients for a second linear filter that performs the predistorting of the original propagated electrical signal which reduces the second linear distortions in the output electrical signal; and applying the second linear filter to the modified input electrical signal.
However, Monsen teaches further comprising: determining coefficients for a second linear filter (Paragraph 49, lines 5-8, see also Paragraph 58, lines 3-7) that performs the predistorting of the original propagated electrical signal which reduces the second linear distortions in the output electrical signal (Paragraph 6, lines 28-33); and applying the second linear filter to the modified input electrical signal (Paragraph 6, lines 24-28).
Weber, McMahon, Tanzil, Haas, and Monsen all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Weber to incorporate the teachings of Monsen to include the linear filter of Monsen in the circuit of Weber, which would have the effect of providing increased distortion compensation (Monsen, Paragraph 17, lines 19-24).
Regarding claim 6, Weber, McMahon, and Haas fail to disclose:
wherein applying the second linear filter to the input signal causes coefficients of the nonlinear filter to be linear-in-parameter, and the determining coefficients of the second linear filter is performed by solving for the coefficients of the second filter using a least-squares method.
However, Monsen further teaches wherein applying the second linear filter to the input signal causes coefficients of the nonlinear filter to be linear-in-parameter (Monsen, Paragraph 14, lines 42-51), and the determining coefficients of the second linear filter is performed by solving for the coefficients of the second filter using a least-squares method (Paragraph 14, lines 47-51).
Weber, McMahon, Haas, Tanzil, and Monsen all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Weber to incorporate the teachings of Monsen to include the linear filter of Monsen in the circuit of Weber, which would have the effect of providing increased distortion compensation (Monsen, Paragraph 17, lines 19-24).
Regarding claim 7, Weber further discloses:
determining amplitude linear equations based on measured intermodulation distortion components of the output electrical signal (Weber, Paragraph 63, lines 11-16), when the nonlinear channel is excited by the respective multi-tone signals from the set of multi-tone signals (Fig. 7, step 703), determining phase linear equations based on the measured intermodulation distortion components of the output electrical signal (Paragraph 63, lines 11-16), when the nonlinear channel is excited by the respective multi-tone signals from the set of multi-tone signals (Fig. 7, step 703), and determining the second linear filter coefficients based on the amplitude linear equations and the phase linear equations (Paragraph 63, lines 11-16), but fails to disclose further comprising: initializing the second linear filter by selecting as the original propagated electrical signal, respective multi-tone signals from a set of multi-tone signals, each multi-tone signal having a respective set of frequencies from a plurality of discrete frequencies, and the plurality of discrete frequencies being selected to span a predefined frequency range.
However, McMahon further teaches further comprising: initializing the second linear filter by selecting as the original propagated electrical signal, respective multi-tone signals from a set of multi-tone signals (McMahon, Paragraph 119, lines 2-5), each multi-tone signal having a respective set of frequencies from a plurality of discrete frequencies (Paragraph 118, lines 1-3, and Paragraph 119, lines 3-5), and the plurality of discrete frequencies being selected to span a predefined frequency range (Paragraph 119, lines 4-5).
Weber, McMahon, Tanzil, Haas, and Monsen all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Weber to incorporate the teachings of McMahon to include the multi-tone input signal of McMahon in the circuit of Weber, which would have the effect of improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the circuit of Weber (McMahon, Paragraph 20, lines 5-6 and 16).
Regarding claim 11, Weber discloses:
transmitting the input electrical signal through the nonlinear channel to generate the original propagated electrical signal (Weber, Fig. 6, consider signal through power amplifier 661), the original propagated electrical signal including one or more intermodulation distortion components of the first frequency component and the second frequency component that are generated by transmitting the multi-tone electrical signal through the nonlinear channel (Paragraph 63, lines 1-7); but fails to disclose further comprising: initializing the second linear filter and the nonlinear filter by generating an input electrical signal to be a set of multi-tone electrical signals comprising a portion having a first frequency component and a second frequency component; wherein determining coefficients for the nonlinear filter and the second linear filter is performed using a synchronization that time synchronizes the set of multi-tone electrical signals.
However, McMahon further teaches further comprising: initializing the second linear filter and the nonlinear filter by generating an input electrical signal to be a set of multi-tone electrical signals (McMahon, Paragraph 119, lines 2-5) comprising a portion having a first frequency component (Paragraph 119, lines 2-5, consider first frequency of frequency pair) and a second frequency component (Paragraph 119, lines 2-5, consider second frequency of frequency pair); wherein determining coefficients for the nonlinear filter and the second linear filter is performed using a synchronization that time synchronizes the set of multi-tone electrical signals (Paragraph 120, lines 10-15).
Weber, McMahon, Tanzil, Haas, and Monsen all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Weber to incorporate the teachings of McMahon to include the multi-tone input signal of McMahon in the circuit of Weber, which would have the effect of improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the circuit of Weber (McMahon, Paragraph 20, lines 5-6 and 16).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Weber in view of McMahon and Tanzil as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Lashkarian et al. “FPGA Implementation of Digital Predistortion Linearizers for Wideband Power Amplifiers”, as cited by applicant, hereafter referred for Lashkarian.
Regarding claim 8, Weber and McMahon fail to disclose:
wherein the nonlinear filter is linear-in-parameter, and determining coefficients of the nonlinear filter is performed by solving for the coefficients of the nonlinear filter using a least-squares method using the original input multi-tone electrical signal and the modified input electrical signal.
However, Lashkarian teaches wherein the nonlinear filter is linear-in-parameter (Lashkarian, Page 3, Equation (7)), and determining coefficients of the nonlinear filter is performed by solving for the coefficients of the nonlinear filter using a least-squares method using the original input multi-tone electrical signal and the modified input electrical signal (Page 2, Section 2.3, lines 2-7).
Weber, McMahon, Tanzil, and Lashkarian are all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Weber to incorporate the teachings of Lashkarian to include the digital pre-distortion filter of Lashkarian in the circuit of Weber, which would have the effect of providing a high efficiency digital pre-distortion filter (Lashkarian, Page 1, Col. 2, lines 19-28).
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Weber in view of McMahon and Tanzil as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Azadet (Patent Publication Number US 2014/0314182 A1), hereafter referred to as Azadet.
Regarding claim 9, Weber and McMahon fail to disclose:
wherein the nonlinear channel has a first linear distortion portion preceding a nonlinear distortion portion, and determining nonlinear filter coefficients of the nonlinear filter further comprises selecting coefficients of the nonlinear filter that reduce distortions caused by the first linear distortion portion in addition to reducing the nonlinear distortions.
However, Azadet teaches wherein the nonlinear channel has a first linear distortion portion (Azadet, Fig. 1, 110-0) preceding a nonlinear distortion portion (Fig. 1, see connection between 110-0 and 120-0), and determining nonlinear filter coefficients of the nonlinear filter further comprises selecting coefficients of the nonlinear filter that reduce distortions caused by the first linear distortion portion in addition to reducing the nonlinear distortions (Fig. 3, step 340).
Weber, McMahon, Tanzil, and Azadet are all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Weber to incorporate the teachings of Azadet to include the digital pre-distortion circuitry of Azadet in the circuit of Weber, which would have the effect of providing high quality digital pre-distortion for the power amplifier of Weber (Azadet, Paragraph 5, lines 1-10).
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Weber in view of McMahon and Tanzil as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Ku “Closed-form Expression of IMD Considering Input/Output Frequency Responses in Nonlinear RF Power Amplifiers for Digital Predistortion”, hereafter referred to as Ku.
Regarding claim 13, Weber and McMahon fail to disclose:
wherein determining the nonlinear coefficients for the nonlinear filter includes that the nonlinear filter comprises a memoryless nonlinear filter and another linear filter, and determining the nonlinear coefficients for the nonlinear filter includes setting coefficients of the memoryless nonlinear filter and the another linear filter to values that reduce the nonlinear distortions.
However, Ku teaches wherein determining the nonlinear coefficients for the nonlinear filter includes that the nonlinear filter comprises a memoryless nonlinear filter and another linear filter (Ku, Page 1, Col. 2, lines 17-20), and determining the nonlinear coefficients for the nonlinear filter includes setting coefficients of the memoryless nonlinear filter and the another linear filter to values that reduce the nonlinear distortions (Page 2, Col. 2, lines 17-31).
Weber, McMahon, Tanzil, and Ku are all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Weber to incorporate the teachings of Ku to include the nonlinear filter of Ku in the circuit of Weber, which would have the effect of providing compensation for AM/AM and AM/PM distortions (Ku, Page 1, Col. 1, lines 7-10).
Claims 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Weber in view of McMahon, Haas, and Tanzil.
Regarding claim 19, Weber discloses:
A transmitter (Weber, Figs. 6-8), comprising: a digital predistortion processor (Fig. 6, 690) configured to receive the input electrical signal and apply thereto a nonlinear filter (Fig. 7, step 704); a digital to analog converter (Fig. 6, 651) configured to convert an output of the digital predistortion processor to an analog signal (Fig. 6, 651); a nonlinear channel (Fig. 6, 661) comprising an amplifier (Fig. 6, 661) that is configured to amplify the analog signal (Fig. 6, 661), the nonlinear channel causing nonlinear distortions and linear distortions to the analog signal (Paragraph 41, lines 15-21, see also Paragraph 57, lines 8-13); and processing circuitry (Fig. 6, 690) configured to initialize values of coefficients of the nonlinear filter of the digital predistortion processor to pre-compensate for and thereby reduce the nonlinear distortions to the analog signal (Fig. 7, step 704), the processing circuitry being configured to initialize the values of the coefficients of the first filter and the second filter by: receiving an original propagated electrical signal resulting from a multi-tone electrical signal input into the nonlinear channel (Fig. 6, see signal output from identification unit 671), determining a modified input electrical signal that pre-compensates for the nonlinear distortions (Fig. 6, see signal output from pre distorter 690), such that transmitting the modified input electrical signal through the nonlinear channel results in a modified output electrical signal having reduced nonlinear distortions relative to the nonlinear distortions in the original propagated electrical signal (Paragraph 58, lines 1-9), using the original input electrical signal and the modified input electrical signal to determine nonlinear filter coefficients for the nonlinear filter (Fig. 7, step 704), that reduces nonlinear distortions in an output electrical signal from the nonlinear channel when the nonlinear filter is applied to an input electrical signal, input into the nonlinear channel (Paragraph 59, lines 9-14), to perform predistortion prior to the transmission of the input electrical signal through the nonlinear channel (Paragraph 59, lines 1-5), and wherein the modified input electrical signal is determined using an iterative process that adapts the modified input electrical signal to reduce levels of intermodulation distortions in the modified output electrical signal (Fig. 8, see steps 803-808), but fails to disclose a waveform generator configured to generate an input electrical signal; an analog to digital converter configured to convert a part of the analog signal to an output electrical signal; the original propagated electrical signal having second linear distortions, below a predetermined threshold, after processing by the nonlinear channel, the original propagated electrical signal further having nonlinear distortions caused by the nonlinear channel, wherein determining nonlinear coefficients for the nonlinear filter is based on the modified input electrical signal and the original propagated electrical signal having multiple simultaneous tones, wherein the intermodulation distortions are based on the multiple simultaneous tones.
However, McMahon teaches a waveform generator (McMahon, Paragraph 42, lines 1-8) configured to generate an input electrical signal (Paragraph 119, lines 2-5); an analog to digital converter (Fig. 2A, 216) configured to convert a part of the analog signal to an output electrical signal (Fig. 2A, see connection between ADC 216 and output of amplifier 212); wherein determining nonlinear coefficients for the nonlinear filter is based on the modified input electrical signal and the original propagated electrical signal having multiple simultaneous tones (McMahon, Paragraph 119, lines 2-5), but fails to teach the original propagated electrical signal having second linear distortions, below a predetermined threshold, after processing by the nonlinear channel, the original propagated electrical signal further having nonlinear distortions caused by the nonlinear channel, wherein the intermodulation distortions are based on the multiple simultaneous tones.
However, Haas teaches the original propagated electrical signal having second linear distortions (Haas, Fig. 4, 66), below a predetermined threshold, after processing by the nonlinear channel (Fig. 4, consider distortion of filter 66 and lack of linear filter in Weber), the original propagated electrical signal further having nonlinear distortions caused by the nonlinear channel (Fig. 4, 64), but fails to teach wherein the intermodulation distortions are based on the multiple simultaneous tones.
However, Tanzil teaches wherein the intermodulation distortions are based on the multiple simultaneous tones (Tanzil, Col. 5, lines 24-34 and 41-43).
Weber, McMahon, Haas, and Tanzil are all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Weber to incorporate the teachings of McMahon, Haas, and Tanzil to include the multi-tone input signal of McMahon in the circuit of Weber, which would have the effect of improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the circuit of Weber (McMahon, Paragraph 20, lines 5-6 and 16), to include the nonlinear channel of Haas as the nonlinear channel of Weber, which would have the effect of providing a well-known model of a power amplifier for digital predistortion (Haas, Col. 7, lines 50-53), and to include the intermodulation distortion compensation of Tanzil in the circuit of Weber, which would have the effect of providing additional non-linear distortion compensation for the circuit of Weber (Tanzil, Col. 5, lines 24-34 and 41-43).
Regarding claim 20, Weber further discloses:
wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: predistort an input signal input into the nonlinear channel (Weber, Fig. 6, see signal output from identification unit 671), but fails to disclose based on the linear distortions to cause the original propagated electrical signal to be a first corrected signal having the second linear distortions, below the predetermined threshold.
However, Haas further teaches based on the linear distortions to cause the original propagated electrical signal to be a first corrected signal having the second linear distortions, below the predetermined threshold (Haas, Fig. 4, consider linear filter 66 having a predetermined distortion level below the threshold level).
Weber, McMahon, Haas, and Tanzil are all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Weber to incorporate the teachings of Haas to include the nonlinear channel of Haas as the nonlinear channel of Weber, which would have the effect of providing a well-known model of a power amplifier for digital predistortion (Haas, Col. 7, lines 50-53).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Cheng et al. (Patent Publication Number CN 115,766,355 A) discloses (Fig. 2) an iterative least squares digital predistortion compensation system for a power amplifier.
Kean (Patent Publication Number US 2023/0231524 A1) discloses (Fig. 1A) digital predistortion compensation including amplitude linear equations.
Matsuura et al. (Patent Publication Number US 2018/0159567 A1) discloses (Fig. 4) a digital predistortion compensation system for a power amplifier.
McCorkle (Patent Publication Number US 2014/0313071 A1) discloses (Fig. 9) an input waveform generator for a power amplifier.
Seitner (Patent Publication Number US 2005/0231402 A1) discloses (Fig. 1) pseudo random noise used for synchronizing signal tones.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/LANCE TORBJORN BARTOL/Examiner, Art Unit 2843
/ANDREA LINDGREN BALTZELL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2843