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 .
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. The following features are not shown:
Claim 1 (lines 2-4 and 8): a first number of input ports and a second number of beam-forming ports, wherein the first and second numbers are greater than 1; a second number of receivers;
Claim 5 (lines 1-3): individual beams formed by the virtual array of Rotman lenses overlap at angles where the gain is at half the value of the peak value of each beam;
Claim 6 (lines 1-3): the Rotman lens is configured such that the beam ports are concentrated around the boresight of the radar;
Claim 8 (lines 5-7 and 11): the input ports of a beam-forming network comprising a Rotman lens; a plurality of beam-forming ports; a plurality of receivers;
Claim 9 (lines 2-5 and 8-9): receive antennas in a linear array comprising at least four antennas, wherein the distance between at least the central antennas of the array is d and the distance between the outermost antennas and the respective proximate antenna is greater than d; transmit antennas with predefined unequal distances between each transmit antenna.
The above features must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). 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.
The drawings are objected to because of the following informalities:
Fig. 1 shows angle q, while the Specification refers to the angle as qi;
Fig. 11 shows angle qs, while the Specification refers to the angle as qn.
Fig. 11 should be labeled as “Prior Art.”
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.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
Page 4, lines 14-15, “the beam-forming lens a second number of receivers” should read “the beam-forming lens; a second number of receivers”;
Page 5, line 12, “array where with predefined” should read “array with predefined”;
Page 5, lines 27-28, “the first line is preferably arranged at an angle of greater than 450 to the parallel of the second line” should read “the first line is preferably at an angle greater than 450 to the second line”;
Page 5, line 32, “virtual array Rotman lens” should read “virtual array of Rotman lenses”;
Page 16, line 23, “605b” should read “705b”;
Page 21, line 25, “a cost-effective further benefit” should read “a further cost-effective benefit”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
Claims 8 and 12 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 8, line 5, “the received signal from at least two receive antennas” should be amended to “the received signals from at least two receive antennas”;
Claim 12, line 2, “use with” should be amended to “use of”.
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 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim 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.
Claim 3 (line 5) recites “where N is the first number”. It is not clear what “the first number” refers to. Claim 3 is dependent on claim 1 where two “first numbers” are being recited: “a first number of input ports” and “a first number of antennas”. Thus, the applicant must clearly point out which “first number” claim 3 refers to.
Claim 6 (line 2) recites “the beam ports”. The beam ports are not defined in claim 6, nor in claim 1, which claim 6 is dependent on.
Further, claim 6 (lines 2-3) recites “boresight of the radar”. Boresight is defined in the art as the axis of maximum gain of an antenna. However, in the case of Rotman lens each beam port is associated with a beam with a peak gain at a different angle. Thus, depending on the beam port, the boresight of the radar would be different, which makes the scope of the invention indefinite. This indefiniteness may be corrected by amending “boresight” to “broadside”, which is determined by the geometry of an antenna array and is fixed for a given antenna array configuration.
Claim 8 (line 4) recites “the signals”. It is not clear what signals “the signals” refer to.
Further, claim 8 (lines 9-10) recite “the beam-forming network is further configured to apply an additional phase term to each signal being combined so as to form a beam at a desired angle.” It is not clear how the beam-forming network is being configured to apply the additional phase terms to each signal being combined. The Specification recites (p. 19, lines 11-13) that “the signals received at the nb th beam port, from one sequence of chirps from the M transmitters, are mathematically combined, with an additional phase term applied to each to form a beam at the correct angle”. As recited in the claim, the beam-forming network comprises a Rotman lens. A Rotman lens is a passive device which cannot apply additional phase terms on its own. Thus, absent recitation of additional elements which are a part of the beam-forming network and which can apply an additional phase term to each signal being combined so as to form a beam at a desired angle, the beam-forming network cannot be configured as claimed, the scope of the claimed invention is indefinite.
For the purposes of the examination, the Examiner interprets the invention claimed here in the same way as the processing means to determine the position of an object in claim 1 (see examiner’s interpretation of claim 1 in view of 112(a) rejection above).
Claim 9 (line 3) recites “the central antennas of the array”. It is not clear which and what number of antennas are considered central for a different number of antennas in the array.
Further, claim 9 (lines 6 and 9-10) recites “the main beam”. A main beam is not previously defined in claim 9, nor in claim 8 which claim 9 is dependent on.
Further, claim 9 (line 8) recites “configuring the transmit antennas so that they are arranged”. It is not clear in what manner the transmit antennas are being arranged – e.g. in a straight line, in a circle, in a square, rectangular, or triangular geometry, etc.
Lastly, the limitations of “a reduced number of receive antennas is used” (lines 6-7) and “a reduced number of transmit antennas is used” (line 10) recited in the claim have no logical connection to the rest of the claimed limitations. It is not clear whether the main beam is unaffected when the number of receive and/or transmit antennas, respectively, is reduced or the reduction of number of antennas has some other effect – e.g. “a reduced number of receive/transmit antennas is used to achieve …”. Further, the reduced number of receive/transmit antennas is not being supported (explained) by the Specification in the current disclosure. Thus, the limitations regarding a reduced number of receive antennas and a reduced number of transmit antennas cannot be examined.
Claim 13 (lines 2-3) recites “the boresight of the radar”. Boresight is defined in the art as the axis of maximum gain of an antenna. However, in the case of Rotman lens each beam port is associated with a beam with a peak gain at a different angle. Thus, depending on the beam port, the boresight of the radar would be different, which makes the scope of the invention indefinite. This indefiniteness may be corrected by amending “boresight” to “broadside”, which is determined by the geometry of an antenna array and is fixed for a given antenna array configuration.
Claim 14 (lines 1-2) recites “the first signal”. A first signal is not previously defined in claim 14, nor in claim 8 which claim 14 is dependent on.
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.
Claims 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 12, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (US 20200096626 A1, hereinafter Wang) in view of BniLam et al. (“RSS-based AoA Estimation System for IoT Applications using Rotman Lens”, 2020 14th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, 2020-03-15, pp. 1-5, hereinafter BniLam).
Regarding claim 1, as best understood, Wang teaches (Figs. 3, 7) a radar (104) for a road vehicle comprising:
a beam-forming network (212);
a first number of antennas (201), wherein the first number of antennas is for receiving signals and each antenna in the first number of antennas is connected to a respective input port of the beam-forming network (212);
a third number of antennas (200), wherein the number of antennas is for transmitting a signal, wherein the third number is greater than 1; and
the beam-forming network (212) is configured to combine signals received by at least two of the first number of antennas (201) from at least two of the third number of antennas (200), and wherein the beam-forming network is further configured to apply an additional phase term to each signal being combined so as to form a beam at a desired angle (Fig. 7 in Wang teaches a virtual receive array 240 and per the examiner’s interpretation the additional phase term to each transmit signal is implicitly present in the virtual receive antenna array as illustrated in the annotated figure above).
Wang does not teach:
a beam-forming network comprising a Rotman lens having a first number of input ports and a second number of beam-forming ports, wherein the first and second numbers are greater than 1;
a second number of receivers, wherein at least two receivers can operate simultaneously and each receiver of the second number of receivers is connected to a respective beam-forming port of the second number of beam-forming ports;
determining the position of an object relative to the radar based on the magnitudes and phases of the signals received by the receivers by measuring the signals at each of the outputs of the Rotman lens and using the received signal strength (RSS) to estimate the angle-of-arrival (AoA) of the transmit signals reflected from the object in question (see examiner’s interpretation above).
BniLam teaches:
a beam-forming network comprising a Rotman lens having a first number of input ports and a second number of beam-forming ports, wherein the first and second numbers are greater than 1 (Fig. 1a, b);
a second number of receivers (individual RTL-SDRs - p. 3, col. 2, lines 3-5), wherein at least two receivers can operate simultaneously and each receiver of the second number of receivers is connected to a respective beam-forming port of the second number of beam-forming ports;
determining the position of an object relative to the radar based on the magnitudes and phases of the signals received by the receivers by measuring the signals at each of the outputs of the Rotman lens and using the received signal strength (RSS) to estimate the angle-of-arrival (AoA) of the transmit signals reflected from the object in question (see p. 3, col. 2, lines 7-20).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Wang to incorporate the teachings of BniLam to:
replace the beam-forming network in Wang with a beam-forming network comprising a Rotman lens having a first number of input ports and a second number of beam-forming ports, wherein the first and second numbers are greater than 1;
include a second number of receivers, wherein at least two receivers can operate simultaneously and each receiver of the second number of receivers is connected to a respective beam-forming port of the second number of beam-forming ports; and
determine the position of an object relative to the radar based on the magnitudes and phases of the signals received by the receivers by measuring the signals at each of the outputs of the Rotman lens and using the received signal strength (RSS) to estimate the angle-of-arrival (AoA) of the transmit signals reflected from the object in question (per the examiner’s interpretation).
The modification of using a Rotman lens as a beam-forming network would resolve difficulties in other system related to the coherence of the RF channels and would allow for true time delay (TTD) beamforming, which is appropriate for use with Radar systems (see BniLam p. 1, col. 2, lines 4-30). The modification of including multiple receivers connected to the respective beam-forming ports of the Rotman lens would allow measuring the signals at each of the outputs of the Rotman lens. Lastly, using RSS to estimate the angle-of-arrival (AoA) of the transmit signals reflected from the object in question allows for determining the position of an object with high-accuracy (see BniLam, Fig. 4, AoA estimation error based on DW).
Regarding claim 2, as best understood, the combination of Wang and BniLam teaches all limitations of claim 1 as addressed above. Further, the combination of Wang and BniLam teaches (Wang - Fig. 3) the first number of antennas (201) is arranged in a first line, and the third number of antennas (200) is arranged in a second line, wherein the first line is substantially parallel to the second line.
Regarding claim 4, as best understood, the combination of Wang and BniLam teaches all limitations of claim 1 as addressed above. Further, Wang teaches (Fig. 7) forming of virtual array due to the multiple numbers of transmit antennas and BniLam teaches (Fig. 1c) the individual beams of the Rotman lens overlapping. Thus, the combination of Wang and BniLam, where the feed network of Wang is replaced by the Rotman lens of BniLam, teaches forming of a virtual array of Rotman lenses through use of the third number of antennas and the Rotman lens is configured such that individual beams formed by the virtual array Rotman lens overlap.
Regarding claim 7, as best understood, the combination of Wang and BniLam teaches all limitations of claim 1 as addressed above. Further, the combination teaches the limitation wherein the antennas are configured to operate with millimetre wave radar signals (see Wang, paragraph [0032], lines 3-4 – a frequency range of 76.5-77 GHz corresponds to a radiation wavelength of approximately 3.9 mm).
Regarding claim 8, as best understood, Wang teaches (Figs. 3, 7; paragraph [0029], lines 1-5) a method of determining the position of an object relative to a radar for a road vehicle, comprising:
transmitting signals from a plurality of transmit antennas (200);
receiving the signals at a plurality of receive antennas (201).
Wang does not teach:
providing the received signal from at least two receive antennas to the input ports of a beam-forming network comprising a Rotman lens, wherein the beam-forming network has a plurality of beam-forming ports and the beam-forming network is configured to combine signals received at its input ports and provide the combined signals to its beam-forming ports, and wherein the beam-forming network is further configured to apply an additional phase term to each signal being combined so as to form a beam at a desired angle;
obtaining the outputs from the beam-forming network at a plurality of receivers, wherein each receiver is connected to a respective beam-forming port of the beam-forming network; and
processing the obtained outputs to determine the position of an object at each receiver based on the magnitudes and relative phases of the combined signals provided to the receivers from the beam-forming ports of the beam forming network.
BniLam teaches:
providing the received signal from at least two receive antennas to the input ports of a beam-forming network comprising a Rotman lens (Fig. 1a,b), wherein the beam-forming network has a plurality of beam-forming ports (Fig. 1a - beam ports) and the beam-forming network is configured to combine signals received at its input ports (Fig. 1a - antenna ports) and provide the combined signals to its beam-forming ports, and wherein the beam-forming network is further configured to apply an additional phase term to each signal being combined so as to form a beam at a desired angle (additional phase term for each transmit signal being combined at each of the receive antennas is due to the difference in the paths traveled by the signals from multiple transmit antennas – see examiner’s arguments in the 112(a) rejection of claim 1 and annotated figure above for illustration);
obtaining the outputs from the beam-forming network at a plurality of receivers (individual RTL-SDRs - p. 3, col. 2, lines 3-5), wherein each receiver is connected to a respective beam-forming port of the beam-forming network; and
processing the obtained outputs to determine the position of an object at each receiver based on the magnitudes and relative phases of the combined signals provided to the receivers from the beam-forming ports of the beam forming network by using RSS to estimate the AoA of the transmit signals reflected from the object in question (per the examiner’s interpretation – p. 3, col. 2, lines 7-20 describe the processing of the outputs to determine the position of an object).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Wang to incorporate the teachings of BniLam to:
replace the beam-forming network in Wang with a beam-forming network comprising a Rotman lens for providing the received signal from at least two receive antennas to the input ports of a beam-forming network comprising a Rotman lens, wherein the beam-forming network has a plurality of beam-forming ports and the beam-forming network is configured to combine signals received at its input ports and provide the combined signals to its beam-forming ports, and wherein the beam-forming network is further configured to apply an additional phase term to each signal being combined so as to form a beam at a desired angle;
obtain the outputs from the beam-forming network at a plurality of receivers, wherein each receiver is connected to a respective beam-forming port of the beam-forming network; and
processing the obtained outputs to determine the position of an object at each receiver based on the magnitudes and relative phases of the combined signals provided to the receivers from the beam-forming ports of the beam forming network.
The modification of using a Rotman lens as a beam-forming network would resolve difficulties in other system related to the coherence of the RF channels and would allow for true time delay (TTD) beamforming, which is appropriate for use with Radar systems (see BniLam p. 1, col. 2, lines 4-30). The modification of including multiple receivers connected to the respective beam-forming ports of the Rotman lens would allow measuring the signals at each of the outputs of the Rotman lens. Lastly, using RSS to estimate the AoA of the transmit signals reflected from the object in question allows for determining the position of an object with high-accuracy (see BniLam, Fig. 4, AoA estimation error based on DW).
Regarding claim 12, as best understood, the combination of Wang and BniLam teaches all limitations of claim 8 as addressed above. Further, Wang teaches (Fig. 7) forming of virtual array due to the multiple numbers of transmit antennas and BniLam teaches (Fig. 1c) the individual beams of the Rotman lens overlapping. Thus, the combination of Wang and BniLam, where the feed network of Wang is replaced by the Rotman lens of BniLam, teaches the Rotman lens forming a virtual array of Rotman lenses through use with the plurality of transmit antennas and the Rotman lens is configured such that individual beams formed by the virtual array Rotman lens overlap.
Regarding claim 14, as best understood, the combination of Wang and BniLam teaches all limitations of claim 8 as addressed above. Further, the combination teaches the limitation wherein the first signal is a millimetre wave radar signal (see Wang, paragraph [0032], lines 3-4 – a frequency range of 76.5-77 GHz corresponds to a radiation wavelength of approximately 3.9 mm).
Claims 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Wang and BniLam as applied to claim 1 in view of Chen et al. (US 20200233076 A1, hereinafter Chen).
Regarding claim 3, as best understood, the combination of Wang and BniLam teaches all limitations of claim 1 as addressed above.
However, the combination of Wang and BniLam does not teach the limitation wherein the first number of antennas is arranged in a line, with a predefined distance d between each antenna, and the third number of antennas is arranged in a line, with a distance of Nxd between each antenna, where N is the first number.
Chen teaches (Fig. 3) a first number of receive antennas (RX1, RX2, RX3, RX4) arranged in a line, with a predefined distance d between each antenna, and a number of transmit antennas (TX1, TX2) arranged in a line, with a distance of Nxd (4d) between each antenna, where N (4) is the first number.
Therefore, it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Wang and BniLam to incorporate the teachings of Chen to re-arrange the first number of antennas and the third number of antennas in the combination, so that the first number of antennas is arranged in a line, with a predefined distance d between each antenna, and the third number of antennas is arranged in a line, with a distance of Nxd between each antenna, where N is the first number. This modification would allow forming a virtual receive array with the appropriate phase differences between the receive antennas (see Chen, GP [0039], lines 9-20).
Claims 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Wang and BniLam as applied to claim 8 in view of Chen.
Regarding claim 10, as best understood, the combination of Wang and BniLam teaches all limitations of claim 2 as addressed above.
However, the combination of Wang and BniLam does not teach configuring the receive antennas so that they are arranged in a first line, with a predefined distance d between each receive antenna, and configuring the transmit antennas so that they are arranged in a second line, with a distance of Nxd between each transmit antenna, where N is the number of receive antennas.
Chen teaches (Fig. 3) a first number of receive antennas (RX1, RX2, RX3, RX4) arranged in a line, with a predefined distance d between each antenna, and a number of transmit antennas (TX1, TX2) arranged in a line, with a distance of Nxd (4d) between each antenna, where N (4) is the first number.
Therefore, it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Wang and BniLam to incorporate the teachings of Chen to re-arrange the receive and transmit antennas so that the receive antennas are arranged in a first line, with a predefined distance d between each receive antenna, and the transmit antennas are arranged in a second line, with a distance of Nxd between each transmit antenna, where N is the number of receive antennas. This modification would allow forming a virtual receive array with the appropriate phase differences between the receive antennas (see Chen, GP [0039], lines 9-20).
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Wang and BniLam as applied to claim 1 in view of Wiebach et al. (“Improving the sidelobes of arrays fed by multiple-beam beam formers,” Proceedings of the 1998 IEEE Radar Conference, RADCON’98, May 14, 1998, hereinafter Wiebach).
Regarding claim 6, as best understood, the combination of Wang and BniLam teaches all limitations of claim 1 as addressed above.
The combination of Wang and BniLam does not teach the limitation wherein the Rotman lens is configured such that the beam ports are concentrated around the boresight of the radar.
Wiebach teaches (Figure 3) a Rotman lens where the beam ports (labeled as focal ports in the figure) are concentrated around the boresight of the radar.
Therefore, it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Wang and BniLam to incorporate the teachings of Wiebach to design the Rotman lens in the combination, so that the beam ports are concentrated around the boresight of the radar. This modification would provide space for inserting absorber in the Rotman lens surrounding the beam ports. A person skilled in the art would recognize that this would improve the performance of the Rotman lens by reducing reflections from the Rotman lens cavity which interfere with the beam ports and the array ports.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Wang and BniLam as applied to claim 4 in view of Wiebach.
Regarding claim 5, as best understood, the combination of Wang and BniLam teaches all limitations of claim 4 as addressed above.
The combination of Wang and BniLam does not teach the limitation wherein individual beams formed by the virtual array of Rotman lenses overlap at angles where the gain is at half the value of the peak value of each beam.
Wiebach teaches (Figure 5; p. 314, lines 29-30 and p. 315, lines 1-3) beam patterns of adjacent beam ports of Rotman lens overlap at angles where the gain is at half the value (-3 dB points) of the peak value of each beam.
Therefore, it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Wang and BniLam to incorporate the teachings of Wiebach to design the Rotman lens in the combination in such a way, so that individual beams formed by the virtual array of Rotman lenses overlap at angles where the gain is at half the value of the peak value of each beam. This modification would provide upon addition of two adjacent beams a new beam located in the middle of the two beams and having a peak gain which is 3 dB greater than the peak gain of the individual beams (see Wiebach p. 315, lines 6-13). This in turn would allow detection of an object at different direction relative to the radar with improved signal to noise ratio due to the greater peak gain.
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Wang and BniLam as applied to claim 8 in view of Wiebach.
Regarding claim 13, as best understood, the combination of Wang and BniLam teaches all limitations of claim 8 as addressed above.
The combination of Wang and BniLam does not teach the limitation wherein the Rotman lens is configured such that the beam ports are concentrated around the boresight of the radar.
Wiebach teaches (Figure 3) a Rotman lens where the beam ports (labeled as focal ports in the figure) are concentrated around the boresight of the radar.
Therefore, it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Wang and BniLam to incorporate the teachings of Wiebach to design the Rotman lens in the combination, so that the beam ports are concentrated around the boresight of the radar. This modification would provide space for inserting absorber in the Rotman lens surrounding the beam ports. A person skilled in the art would recognize that this would improve the performance of the Rotman lens by reducing reflections from the Rotman lens cavity which interfere with the beam ports and the array ports.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Wang and BniLam as applied to claim 8 in view of Zainal et al. (“Sidelobe reduction of unequally spaced arrays for 5G applications”, 2016 10th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, April 10-15, 2016, hereinafter Zainal).
Regarding claim 9, as best understood, the combination of Wang and BniLam teaches all limitations of claim 8 as addressed above.
However, the combination of Wang and BniLam does not teach the limitation configuring the receive antennas in a linear array comprising at least four antennas, wherein the distance between at least the central antennas of the array is d and the distance between the outermost antennas and the respective proximate antenna is greater than d, with predefined unequal distances between each receive antenna in a manner so that the characteristics of the main beam is unaffected, and a reduced number of receive antennas is used; and configuring the transmit antennas so that they are arranged, with predefined unequal distances between each transmit antenna in a manner so that the characteristics of the main beam is unaffected, and a reduced number of transmit antennas is used.
Zainal teaches (Figs. 5 and 6) antennas arranged in a linear array comprising at least four antennas wherein the distance between the central antennas of the array is dc and the distance between the outermost antennas and the respective proximate antenna is dl, which is greater than dc (see Fig. 5) and wherein the main lobe of the resulting gain pattern is unaffected (see Fig. 6 – ESA = equally spaced array, USA1 = unequally spaced array 1, USA1 = unequally spaced array 2).
Therefore, it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Wang and BniLam to incorporate the teachings of Zainal to re-arrange the receive antennas in a linear array comprising at least four antennas, wherein the distance between at least the central antennas of the array is d and the distance between the outermost antennas and the respective proximate antenna is greater than d, with predefined unequal distances between each receive antenna in a manner so that the characteristics of the main beam is unaffected, and a reduced number of receive antennas is used; and configuring the transmit antennas so that they are arranged, with predefined unequal distances between each transmit antenna in a manner so that the characteristics of the main beam is unaffected, and a reduced number of transmit antennas is used. This modification would provide an array pattern with reduced magnitude of the first sidelobes of the gain pattern (see Zainal, Fig. 6) and, thus, improve the signal to noise ratio of the signals received from a particular direction, as is well-known in the art.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Wang, BniLam and Zainal as applied to claim 9 in view of prior art presented in the current application.
Regarding claim 11, as best understood, the combination of Wang, BniLam, and Zainal teaches all limitations of claim 9 as addressed above.
The combination of Wang, BniLam, and Zainal does not teach configuring the receive antennas in a first line and the transmit antennas in a second line so that the first line is not parallel to the second line.
The current application presents prior art in Fig. 5 of the Drawings (see p. 6, line 32 in the Specification of the current application) which teaches configuring the receive antennas in a first line and the transmit antennas in a second line so that the first line is not parallel to the second line.
Therefore, it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Wang, BniLam, and Zainal to incorporate the teachings of the prior art referred to in Fig. 5 in the Drawings of the current application to configure the receive antennas in a first line and the transmit antennas in a second line so that the first line is not parallel to the second line. This modification would provide a resultant virtual array which is able to locate the angular position of an object with respect to both the first and second orientation, and as a result, the absolute position of an object can be calculated (see p. 15, lines 26-31 in the Specification of the current application).
Conclusion
iAny inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARIN STOYTCHEV STOYTCHEV whose telephone number is (571)272-3467. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri, 8:00-17:00.
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/MARIN STOYTCHEV STOYTCHEV/Examiner, Art Unit 2845
/GRAHAM P SMITH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845