DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 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 1-16 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.
Limitation “by an integration of an output signal of the photodiode in a first phase when the light source is turned off and in a second phase when the light source is turned on” is unclear . Do first face data integrated with second phase data or obtained two sets of data such as first phase integrated data and second phase integrated data.
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.
Claim(s) 1 and claims bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 US 20160079447 A1 in view of D2 US 20230018095 A1 further in view of D01 US 20150236751 A1 or D02 US 20150304638 A1.
Regarding claim 1 D1 teaches
1. (Currently Amended) An optical proximity sensor, comprising:
- a photodiode;(fig. 1 (11))
- a light source configured to emit light; (fig. 1 (50))
- a measurement circuit coupled to the photodiode, the measurement circuit configured to measure light received by the photodiode by an integration of an output signal of the photodiode in a first phase when the light source is turned off and in a second phase when the light source is turned [0006,0030]
configured to determine the difference between the light measured in the first and second phases, (fig. 2a).
but does not teach while D2 teaches
when the light source is turned off and in a second phase when the light source is turned on by an integration of an output signal of the photodiode [0006, 0060, 0112]
It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 with teachings by D2 in order to switch on ranging when for example human is present in the environment and tracking of human is required.
Although D1 does not explicitly teach
wherein a time of integration in the first phase is longer than a time of integration in the second phase
D01/D02 teaches that in order to better estimate background noise predefection time need to be longer for weaker signals[0008] /[0016,0021]
And therefore It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 with teachings by D01/D02 in order to achieve better noise estimate and allow separation of the weaker signals.
2. (Currently Amended) The optical proximity sensor of claim 1, wherein the first phase comprises at least a first sub-phase and a second sub-phase performed consecutively. (Fig. 2a)
3. (Currently Amended) The optical proximity sensor of claim 2, wherein the measurement circuit comprises
an integrator(21) coupled to the photodiode,
a sum and hold circuit31() coupled downstream the integrator(21)(fig. 1) and
a capacitor arrangement(35) disposed between the integrator and the sum and hold circuit,
wherein the capacitor arrangement comprises
Although D1 does not teach
at least a first and a second capacitor
wherein selectively one of the first and second capacitors is operatively connected between an output of the integrator and an input of the sum and hold circuit during the first phase and a parallel connection of the first and second capacitors is operatively connected between the output of the integrator and the input of the sum and hold circuit during the second phase.
Using plurality capacitors is operatively connected between an output of the integrator and an input of the sum and hold circuit during the first phase and a parallel connection of the first and second capacitors is operatively connected between the output of the integrator and the input of the sum and hold circuit during the second phase
Is just matter of obvious modification in order to provide system which has larger capacitance and hance accumulate more charge. Or instead of one large capacitor one can use multiple small capacitors.
Although D1 does not teach
4. (Currently Amended) The optical proximity sensor of claim 3, wherein the first capacitor is operatively connected between the output of the integrator and the input of the sum and hold circuit during the first sub-phase and the second capacitor (CS2) is operatively connected between the output of the integrator and the input of the sum and hold circuit during the second sub-phase .
8. (Currently Amended) The optical proximity sensor of claim 3,
wherein the capacitor arrangement comprises at least four capacitors disposed between the output of the integrator and the input of the sum and hold circuit , wherein the first phase comprises at least four sub-phases performed consecutively and a single one of the at least four capacitors is associated to one of the at least four sub-phases and a parallel connection of the at least four capacitors is associated to the second phase .
9. (Currently Amended) The optical proximity sensor of claim 8, wherein the each one of the at least four capacitors has the same capacitance. (simple modification to use instead of one large capacitor plurality parallel capacitors then the total capacitance will be sum of all capacitances and as we have two measurements one can use two sets of parallel connected capacitors for two different measurements )
D1 explicitly teaches that 35 is a storage capacitor and hence using two storage capacitors 35 for two different measurements or if number of measurements more that 4 is the obvious modification. And using multiple capacitors instead of one to accumulate full charge of the single measurement is obvious modification choice and can be considered replacing single large capacitor with multiple small capacitors connected in parallel .
It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 in order to store two different measurements in two different storages which can comprise of multiple capacitors.
10. (Currently Amended) The optical proximity sensor of claim 3,
wherein the sum and hold circuit comprises an amplifier connected downstream the capacitor arrangement [0023], at least one capacitor connected between an input and an output of the amplifier and a switch connected parallel to the capacitor, (fig. 1 amplifier 32 35 is downstream capacitor , capacitor between input and output is just within the structure of the amplifier. )
the sum and hold circuit configured to generate an output signal representing the difference between the charge stored in the capacitors of the capacitor arrangement at the end of the first phase and the charge stored in the capacitors of the capacitor arrangement at the end of the second phase . [0058]
D1 does not explicitly teach at least one capacitor connected between an input and an output of the amplifier and a switch connected parallel to the capacitor but one of ordinary skills in the art would recognize that electrical Amplifier include capacitors in the structure.
11. (Currently Amended) The optical proximity sensor of claim 3, wherein the integrator is configured to generate an output signal at the output of the integrator comprising a useful signal portion and a noise portion, wherein the capacitor arrangement is configured to average the noise portions provided by the integrator during the first and second sub-phases(fig. 2A ambient light only and led+ ambient light)
12. (Currently Amended) The optical proximity sensor of claim 3, further comprising an analog-to-digital converter (40) disposed downstream the sum and hold circuit to generate a digital code representative of the difference of light received during the first and the second phases ( D1 fig. 1)
13. (Currently Amended) The optical proximity sensor of claim 1, the measurement circuitcomprising: - an integrator configured to generate a first signal representing the amount of light received by the photodiode during the first phase and to generate a second signal representing the amount of light received by the photodiode during the second phase ,(fig. 2A)
Although D1 does not teach the measurement circuit configured to normalize the first signal by the ratio of the lengths of the first phase and the second phase; and - a sum and hold circuit configured to generate the difference between the normalized first signal and the second signal.
D1 explicitly teaches that ambient light only regime correspond to noise and light + ambient light correspond to signal to noise. It is clear that if Periods TA and Tb are not equal to each other the noise level in TB will be higher than TA with direct proportionality as TB/TA and hence normalization to that quantity before subtraction is common sense in order to equalize the background levels.
14. (Currently AmendedOriginal) The optical proximity sensor of claim 13, wherein the integrator comprises an integration capacitor connected between an input and an output of the integrator, wherein the capacitance of the integration capacitor is increased by the by the ratio of the lengths of the first phase and the second phase. (D1 fig. 1 24 variable capacitor)
Claim(s) 15, 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 US 20160079447 A1 in view of D2 US 20230018095 A1 further in view of D3 US 20090181719 A1.
Regarding claims 15, 16 D1 teaches
- the optical proximity sensor(100)according to claim l(fig. 1 )
But does not teach while D3 teaches
15. (Currently Amended) A mobile communication device, comprising: -a display;[0011]
16. (Currently Amended) The mobile communication device of claim 15, wherein the brightness of the display is controlled in dependence on the level of proximity(D)determined by the optical proximity sensor.[0011]
It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 with teachings by D3 in order to notify user apparatus is ready state[0048]
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-7 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
It is not obvious why two switches around capacitor are required.
Conclusion
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/HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3645
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