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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 3/16/2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1, 2 and 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 (U.S. PG-PUB NO. 2016/0233580) in view of D2 (U.S. PG-PUB NO. 2018/0076519).
-Regarding claim 1, D1 discloses a beam management method of an electronic device comprising: performing beamforming using an antenna array and a radio frequency (RF) front end circuit (phased array system 200 may include a plurality of antenna elements (elements) 202a-202n (collectively, elements 202), [0024]); detecting blocked antennas of the antenna array of the electronic device using multiple RE chains in the RE front end circuit (Power detectors 242 may also be based on coupled transmission lines to further measure both incident and reflected waves (energy) for the given antenna element 202 to detect blockage of the antenna by a hand or other object, [0033]); and exciting only unblocked antennas of the antenna array by disabling the blocked antennas (the gain controller 240 may, in response to the detector output, remove power from the transceiver 250 associated with the affected antenna element(s) 202; … (e.g., the unblocked antenna elements 202) will continue operating at their maximum efficiency as disclosed herein, [0051]).
D1 is silent to teaching that dynamically redistributing excited power of the blocked antennas to the unblocked antennas. However, the claimed limitation is well known in the art as evidenced by D2.
In the same field of endeavor, D2 teaches dynamically redistributing excited power of the blocked antennas to the unblocked antennas (CPSS (as described above with reference to the embodiment of FIG. 2, but which can also be applied in the embodiment of FIG. 1) regulates the amount of power supplied to each amplifier by varying their bias conditions in accordance with the amplifier load, [0084]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of D1 with the teaching of D2 in order to maintain their efficiency over a range output power.
-Regarding claim 2, the combination further discloses detecting the blocked antennas of the antenna array of the electronic device comprises: transmitting a detecting signal; receiving a reflecting signal of the detecting signal; and determining the blocked antennas of the antenna array according to the reflecting signal (D1, the reflected RF energy may be that energy that was transmitted at the antenna element 202a and reflected back to the antenna element 202a. The reflected energy may be indicative of antenna obstruction or blockage, such as blockage by a hand as in case of a mobile wireless device, (e.g., a UE), [0031]).
-Regarding claim 7, the combination further discloses determining the blocked antennas of the antenna array according to the reflecting signal is determining the blocked antennas of the antenna array according to the reflecting signal by a processor (D1, gain controller 240, [0031]).
Claim(s) 3-6 and 8-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 (U.S. PG-PUB NO. 2016/0233580) in view of D2 (U.S. PG-PUB NO. 2018/0076519) and further in view of D3 (U.S. PG-PUB NO. 2020/0382187).
-Regarding claim 1, D1 discloses an electronic device (phased array system 200 is implemented in user equipment (UE), [0035]), comprising: an antenna array (a phased array system 200, [0024]); a processor coupled to the antenna array (processor, [0060]); a radio frequency (RF) front end circuit comprising multiple RF chains (transceivers 250, as described herein, may refer to the collective functions of at least each pair of the Tx phase shifters 212 and the PAs 220, and each pair of Rx phase shifters 232 and LNAs 230, [0036]); wherein the electronic device detects blocked antennas of the antenna array of the electronic device using the multiple RF chains (Power detectors 242 may also be based on coupled transmission lines to further measure both incident and reflected waves (energy) for the given antenna element 202 to detect blockage of the antenna by a hand or other object, [0033]) and excites only unblocked antennas of the antenna array by disabling the blocked antennas (the gain controller 240 may, in response to the detector output, remove power from the transceiver 250 associated with the affected antenna element(s) 202; … (e.g., the unblocked antenna elements 202) will continue operating at their maximum efficiency as disclosed herein, [0051]).
D1 is silent to teaching that dynamically redistributing excited power of the blocked antennas to the unblocked antennas. However, the claimed limitation is well known in the art as evidenced by D2.
In the same field of endeavor, D2 teaches dynamically redistributing excited power of the blocked antennas to the unblocked antennas (CPSS (as described above with reference to the embodiment of FIG. 2, but which can also be applied in the embodiment of FIG. 1) regulates the amount of power supplied to each amplifier by varying their bias conditions in accordance with the amplifier load, [0084]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of D1 with the teaching of D2 in order to maintain their efficiency over a range output power.
The combination of D1 and D2 is silent to teaching that a modem coupled to the antenna array and the processor; a proximity sensor coupled to the modem; and a sub-6GHz antenna coupled to the modem. However, the claimed limitation is well known in the art as evidenced by D3.
In the same field of endeavor, D3 teaches a modem coupled to the antenna array and the processor (baseband modem 106, [0172]); a proximity sensor coupled to the modem (sensors 253, [0215]); and a sub-6GHz antenna coupled to the modem (an antenna reflection measurement detector is included for a sub-6 GHz cellular and/or connectivity path that is collocated with an antenna array used for beamforming, [0242]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of the combination with the teaching of D3 in order to provide modem-level beam management and more sources of hand-blockage detection in a mobile device.
-Regarding claim 3, the combination further discloses transmitting the detecting signal is transmitting the detecting signal from a proximity sensor of the electronic device (D3, proximity data can be generating using a wide variety of types of proximity sensors, [0217]).
-Regarding claim 4, the combination further discloses receiving the reflecting signal of the detecting signal is receiving the reflecting signal of the detecting signal by the proximity sensor (D3, ToF sensor 311, [0232]).
-Regarding claim 5, the combination further discloses transmitting the detecting signal is transmitting the detecting signal from a sub-6GHz antenna (D3, an antenna reflection measurement detector is included for a sub-6 GHz cellular and/or connectivity path that is collocated with an antenna array used for beamforming, [0242]).
-Regarding claim 6, the combination further discloses receiving the reflecting signal of the detecting signal is receiving the reflecting signal of the detecting signal by the sub-6GHz antenna (D3, other antennas (for instance, sub-6 GHz antennas) are collocated with antenna arrays, antenna reflection measurements from the other antennas can used to determine if antenna array radiation is perturbed, [0217]).
-Regarding claim 8, the combination further discloses exciting only unblocked antennas of the antenna array is exciting only unblocked antennas of the antenna array by a modem (D3, the baseband modem 106 includes a beam management circuit 107, [0173]).
-Regarding claim 9, the combination further discloses performing beamforming with only the unblocked antennas (D2, CPSS, [0084]).
-Regarding claim 10, the combination further discloses performing beamforming with only the unblocked antennas is performing beamforming with only the unblocked antennas by the modem (D3, baseband modem 106, [0173]).
-Regarding claim 12, the combination further discloses the modem controls the proximity sensor to detect the blocked antennas of the antenna array (D3, proximity data can be generating using a wide variety of types of proximity sensors, [0217]).
-Regarding claim 13, the combination further discloses the modem controls the sub-6GHz antenna to detect the blocked antennas of the antenna array (D3, other antennas (for instance, sub-6 GHz antennas) are collocated with antenna arrays, antenna reflection measurements from the other antennas can used to determine if antenna array radiation is perturbed, [0217]).
-Regarding claim 14, the combination further discloses the modem controls the antenna array to detect the blocked antennas of the antenna array (D3, the baseband modem 106 includes a beam management circuit 107, [0173]).
-Regarding claim 15, the combination further discloses the antenna array is a millimeter wave antenna array (D1, each of the antenna elements 202 is configured to transmit and receive MMW transmissions, [0025]).
-Regarding claim 16, the combination further discloses the antenna array is a sub-6GHz antenna array (D3, other antennas (for instance, sub-6 GHz antennas) are collocated with antenna arrays, antenna reflection measurements from the other antennas can used to determine if antenna array radiation is perturbed, [0217]).
-Regarding claim 17, the combination further discloses the electronic device is a mobile device (D1, user equipment (UE), [0035]).
-Regarding claim 18, the combination further discloses the electronic device detects the blocked antennas of the antenna array of the electronic device comprises: transmitting a detecting signal; receiving a reflecting signal of the detecting signal; and determining the blocked antennas of the antenna array according to the reflecting signal (D1, the reflected RF energy may be that energy that was transmitted at the antenna element 202a and reflected back to the antenna element 202a. The reflected energy may be indicative of antenna obstruction or blockage, such as blockage by a hand as in case of a mobile wireless device, (e.g., a UE), [0031]).
-Regarding claim 19, the combination further discloses the modem excites only the unblocked antennas (D3, the baseband modem 106 includes a beam management circuit 107, [0173]).
-Regarding claim 20, the combination further discloses the modem performs beamforming with only the unblocked antennas (D2, CPSS (as described above with reference to the embodiment of FIG. 2, but which can also be applied in the embodiment of FIG. 1) regulates the amount of power supplied to each amplifier by varying their bias conditions in accordance with the amplifier load, [0084]; D3, the baseband modem 106 includes a beam management circuit 107, [0173]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
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/PING Y HSIEH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2664
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