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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on September 8, 2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claims 33-52 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Achour et al. (U.S. Publication No. 2019/0067826).
Achour, in figures 1-2, discloses:
Claims 33, 46 and 49: An electromagnetic wave director comprising: a diffractive element (102, 104) formed from a two-dimensional array of subwavelength subcells (108); and a substrate (resonant cells' substrate, para. [0036]) that supports the diffractive element, wherein the two-dimensional array of subwavelength subcells are deposited onto the substrate, wherein the diffractive element is adapted to direct an electromagnetic wave signal generated by an electromagnetic wave transmitter (200) to an electromagnetic wave receiver (users, para. [0032]) disposed within a coverage zone that lies outside a line of sight from the electromagnetic wave transmitter (fig. 2), and wherein the diffractive element has metasurface prescription that modifies amplitude and phase of wavefronts of the electromagnetic wave signal incident onto each of the subwavelength subcells (para. [0017]).
Claim 34: The electromagnetic wave director of claim 33, wherein the subwavelength subcells are adapted to reflect millimeter waves (para. [0003]; see also fig. 2).
Claims 35 and 50: The electromagnetic wave director of claim 33, wherein the electromagnetic wave signal is a millimeter wave signal (para. [0003]).
Claim 36: The electromagnetic wave director of claim 35, wherein the electromagnetic wave signal has a boresight vector, and wherein the electromagnetic wave director is adapted to adjust the boresight vector of the electromagnetic wave signal (fig. 2).
Claim 37: The electromagnetic wave director of claim 33, wherein the array of subwavelength subcells is transmissive (para. [0013]).
Claim 38: The electromagnetic wave director of claim 33, wherein the substrate is made of a substance selected from the group consisting of: glass (para. [0035]) and plastic.
Claim 39: The electromagnetic wave director of claim 33, wherein the diffractive element is disposed on a first side of the substrate, wherein a ground reflector plane is disposed on a second side of the substrate, and wherein the first side is opposite the second side (fig. 5; para. [0036]).
Claim 40: The electromagnetic wave director of claim 33, further comprising: a second array (FSS, para. [0036]) of subwavelength subcells disposed within the substrate, wherein the two-dimensional array of subwavelength subcells is spaced apart from the second array of subwavelength subcells so as to be resonant at a predetermined frequency bandwidth.
Claim 41: The electromagnetic wave director of claim 33, wherein the electromagnetic wave director is formed as a film adapted to be mounted on a wall of a building (para. [0026]).
Claim 42: The electromagnetic wave director of claim 33, wherein the diffractive element is transmissive, and wherein the diffractive element is adapted to deflect the electromagnetic wave signal towards the electromagnetic wave receiver disposed inside a building (para. [0013]).
Claims 43 and 51: The electromagnetic wave director of claim 33, wherein the electromagnetic wave director is formed as a film adapted to laminate a window so as to transmit in an optical wave band and to reflect in a millimeter wave band (para. [0028]).
Claim 44: The electromagnetic wave director of claim 33, wherein the two-dimensional array of subwavelength subcells is a metallic wire mesh (fig. 5).
Claim 45: The electromagnetic wave director of claim 33, wherein the two-dimensional array of subwavelength subcells is made using a Virtual Cathode Deposition (VCD) process (The method of forming a product is not germane to the issue of patentability, since the prior art discloses the claimed structure the claim is deemed unpatentable).
Claim 47: The system of claim 46, wherein the electromagnetic wave director is an active element of a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) beam steering antenna (fig. 4).
Claim 48: The system of claim 46, further comprising: a second electromagnetic wave director, wherein the electromagnetic wave director together with the second electromagnetic wave director provide a folded millimeter wave communication path (fig. 3).
Claim 52: The method of claim 49, wherein the electromagnetic wave director is formed as a film that is applied to a surface of a building, and wherein the second electromagnetic wave signal is directed towards the electromagnetic wave receiver disposed inside the building (para. [0013]).
Conclusion
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/Robert Karacsony/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845