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
Claims 1, 11, and 19 are amended.
Claims 10, 20, and 30 are canceled.
Claims 1-9, 11-19, and 21-29 are pending.
The amendments to claims 1, 11, and 20 are acknowledged and have cured the 35 U.S.C. 112(b) indefiniteness rejection. The 35 U.S.C. 112(b) rejection is WITHDRAWN.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see remarks pages 14-17, filed 11/03/2025, with respect to the rejection of claims 1-30 under 35 U.S.C. 102 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Wu et al. (US 2022/0171049 A1) in view of Shapir et al. (“Doppler Ambiguity Resolving in TDMA Automotive MIMO Radar via Digital Multiple PRF,” 2018 International Radar Conference).
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.
Claims 1-9, 11-19, and 21-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (US 2022/0171049 A1) in view of Shapir et al. (“Doppler Ambiguity Resolving in TDMA Automotive MIMO Radar via Digital Multiple PRF,” 2018 International Radar Conference).
Regarding Claim 1, Wu et al. (‘049) in view of Shapir et al. teaches:
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches A network device of a plurality of network devices for wireless communications, the network device comprising: ([0018]: “In the context of the present disclosure, it will be appreciated that radar systems may be used as sensors in a variety of different applications, including but not limited to automotive radar sensors for road safety systems, such as advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving (AD) systems.”; [0001]: “The present invention is directed in general to radar systems and associated methods of operation.”).
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches at least one memory; and ([0037]: “In an example embodiment, the control logic and methodology shown in FIG. 7 may be implemented as hardware and/or software on a host computing system, processor, or microcontroller unit that includes processor and memory for storing programming control code”).
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and configured to: ([0022]: “the radar MCU 20 includes a radar controller processing unit 21 that may be embodied as a microcontroller unit (MCU) or other processing unit that is configured and arranged for signal processing tasks such as, but not limited to, target identification, computation of target distance, target velocity, and target direction, and generating control signals.”).
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches output a sensing signal for transmission for sensing one or more targets, ([0018]: “frequency modulation continuous Wave (FMCW) modulation radars are used to identify the distance, velocity, and/or angle of a radar target, such as a car or pedestrian, by transmitting Linear Frequency Modulation (LFM) waveforms from multiple transmit antennas”; [0038]: “To generate the transmit radar signals, the radar system first generates a reference chirp signal (step 702), such as by periodically modulating a transmit radar signal with a frequency and/or phase shift.”).
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches wherein the sensing signal and at least one sensing signal transmitted by at least one other network device of the plurality of network devices comprise one or more phase codes and a same frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW), ([0018]: “selected embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to LFM waveform transceivers that are configured to implement Doppler division multiplexing (DDM) MIMO operations by having each transmitter emit an identical frequency ramp chirp signal with specified phase offset values encoded onto individual chirps of the entire chirp sequence”; [0039]: “At step 703, the reference chirp signal is applied to a plurality of slow-time phase shifters to generate co-prime coded (CPC) phase-shifted chirp signals for a plurality of transmit channels.”; [0040]: “In an example embodiment of a 3-TX DDM MIMO radar system with 64 chirps (i.e. Nc=64 where Nc is number of chirps), the phase shift control signals supplied to the phase shifters can chosen to result in a spacing of [17, 26, 21]”).
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches and wherein each phase code of each sensing signal represents one or more Doppler spectrum patterns; ([0033]: “By encoding the DDM MIMO waveforms using co-prime based zero-radial velocity frequency spacing, individual transmitter Doppler spectrum detections can be robustly and unambiguously reconstructed to association with the correct transmitter”; [0035]: “By encoding the individual DDM transmitters TX.sub.1-TX.sub.3 using co-prime based zero-radial velocity frequency spacing, the received Doppler Division MIMO waveform may be processed with CPC decoding to correctly associate individual transmitter Doppler spectrum detections with the correct transmitter.”).
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches receive at least one echo signal from the one or more targets; ([0018]: “by transmitting Linear Frequency Modulation (LFM) waveforms from multiple transmit antennas so that reflected signals from the radar target are received at multiple receive antennas and processed to determine the radial distance, relative radial velocity, and angle (or direction) for the radar target.”; [0046]: “At step 705, the reflected CPC-coded chirp signals from the different transmit channels are received, conditioned, and converted for digital processing at the receiver.”).
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches mitigate Doppler ambiguity in a Doppler spectrum from the at least one echo signal based on the one or more Doppler spectrum patterns, ([0017]: “A co-prime coded (CPC) Doppler Division Multiplexing (DDM) MIMO radar system, hardware circuit, system, architecture, and methodology are described for disambiguating overlapped Doppler spectrums from multiple transmitters by encoding a Doppler division MIMO waveform using co-prime based zero-radial velocity frequency spacing to allow robust and unambiguous reconstruction of individual transmitters Doppler spectrum detections.”; [0047]: “At step 706, the digital processing is applied to separate the reflected transmit channel signals for each transmitter using DDM MIMO CPC disambiguation signal processing steps.”).
Wu et al. (‘049) does not explicitly teach, but Shapir et al. teaches increase a pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of one or more sensing signals of the sensing signal and the at least one sensing signal to mitigate the Doppler ambiguity. (Page 0175, Abstract: “This work proposes a method to resolve Doppler ambiguity by generating an additional PRF digitally, without waveform diversity.”; Page 0177, Section III: “Notice that the PRI becomes equal to Tc, which results in T-times increased vₐₘₐₓ, comparing to the conventional per-transmitter processing for a radar with T transmitters.”).
It would have been obvious to combine Wu’s co-prime coded DDM MIMO radar with Shapir’s digital multiple PRF technique. Both references address Doppler ambiguity in automotive FMCW TDMA MIMO radar systems. Wu acknowledges at [0030] that “ambiguities will occur in the DDM Doppler spectrum when a target’s radial speed exceeds its allocated spectral budget.” Wu identifies at [0030-0031] that increasing PRF (shortening CIT) could support more transmitters without ambiguity, but criticizes this approach as providing “additional cost and complexity to the radar systems.” Shapir addresses Wu’s concern by teaching PRF increase “digitally, without waveform diversity” (Abstract), requiring no “changes in the waveform generation or the Radio Frequency (RF) components of the conventional radar” (Page 0175). Shapir explicitly applies to “TDMA MIMO radar with CW fast LFM waveform” (Page 0175), the same system type as Wu. The techniques appear complementary—Wu’s phase coding provides transmitter identification while Shapir’s digital PRF processing extends the unambiguous velocity range—operating at different processing levels without conflict. Shapir demonstrates practical operability with automotive radar measurements (Page 0180, Section V). A POSITA would be motivated to apply Shapir’s digital PRF technique to overcome Wu’s acknowledged velocity limitations using a method that avoids the hardware cost and complexity concerns Wu associates with conventional PRF increase approaches. The combination would have been obvious with a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding Claims 2, 12, and 22, Wu et al. (‘049) in view of Shapir et al. teaches the network device according to claim 1.
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches wherein each network device of the plurality of network devices is one of user equipment (UE) or a base station ([0018]: “In the context of the present disclosure, it will be appreciated that radar systems may be used as sensors in a variety of different applications, including but not limited to automotive radar sensors for road safety systems, such as advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving (AD) systems.”; [0001]: “The present invention is directed in general to radar systems and associated methods of operation.”). The radar system of Wu operates as sensing equipment that can function analogously to user equipment or base stations in wireless communication systems, as it transmits and receives wireless signals for detection purposes.
Regarding Claims 3, 13, and 23, Wu et al. (‘049) in view of Shapir et al. teaches the network device according to claim 1.
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches wherein the sensing signal and the at least one sensing signal are transmitted at a same time and using a same one or more frequency resources ([0026]: “[0018]: “selected embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to LFM waveform transceivers that are configured to implement Doppler division multiplexing (DDM) MIMO operations by having each transmitter emit an identical frequency ramp chirp signal with specified phase offset values encoded onto individual chirps of the entire chirp sequence”). Wu’s DDM MIMO system transmits chirps from different transmitters during consecutive time slots that together form a coherent transmission frame using the same frequency resources with different phase offsets.
Regarding Claims 4, 14, and 24, Wu et al. (‘049) in view of Shapir et al. teaches the network device according to claim 1.
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches wherein a phase code of the sensing signal is different from at least one phase code of the at least one other network device ([0040]: “In an example embodiment of a 3-TX DDM MIMO radar system with 64 chirps (i.e. N.sub.c=64 where N.sub.c is number of chirps), the phase shift control signals supplied to the phase shifters can chosen to result in a spacing of [17, 26, 21] (in modulo-N.sub.c sense in the wrapped spectrum) in PRF/64 [Hz] units such that the zero-radial velocity bins indices (0-based, from 0˜N.sub.c−1) of the three transmitters are [0, 17, 43] in PRF/64 [Hz] units, respectively.”; [0034]: “In the example of FIG. 5, the differentiated CPC coding scheme is depicted with the first transmitter TX.sub.1 encoding its chirp waveforms 501 with a progressive phase offset of 0 degrees, the second transmitter TX.sub.2 encoding its chirp waveforms 502 with a progressive phase offset of 17/64×PRF=95.625 degrees, and the third transmitter TX.sub.3 encoding its chirp waveforms 503 with a progressive phase offset of 43/64×PRF=241.875 degrees.”).
Regarding Claims 5, 15, and 25, Wu et al. (‘049) in view of Shapir et al. teaches the network device according to claim 4.
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches wherein the one or more Doppler spectrum patterns comprise consecutive empty sub-bands ([0030]: “With existing 76-81 GHz fast-chirp automotive radar front-end monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), the fastest chirp signals are limited by a Chirp Interval Time (CIT) that is no shorter than a period of approximately 15 microseconds. As a result, the maximum unambiguous Doppler radial detection speed is ±65 m/s (or ±234 km/hr), and the entire extent of detectable speed is then divided into N sections for N transmitters for unambiguous DDM operation.”; [0028]: “each transmitter TX.sub.1-TX.sub.4 has an allocated spectrum section 311-314 which is effectively centered around a corresponding zero-radial velocity frequency (e.g., 0, π/2, π, and 3π/2)”). The allocated spectrum sections represent consecutive frequency bands in the Doppler spectrum, and the regions between transmitter allocations effectively form empty sub-bands for disambiguation purposes.
Regarding Claims 6, 16, and 26, Wu et al. (‘049) in view of Shapir et al. teaches the network device according to claim 4.
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches wherein the one or more Doppler spectrum patterns comprise non-consecutive empty sub-bands ([0035]: “By encoding the individual DDM transmitters TX.sub.1-TX.sub.3 using co-prime based zero-radial velocity frequency spacing, the received Doppler Division MIMO waveform may be processed with CPC decoding to correctly associate individual transmitter Doppler spectrum detections with the correct transmitter. As will be noted, the arrangement of the zero-radial velocity resulting in spacing values of {17, 26, 21} are co-primes in PRF/64 [Hz] units.”; [0034]: “the first transmitter TX1 encoding its chirp waveforms 501 with a progressive phase offset of 0 degrees, the second transmitter TX2 encoding its chirp waveforms 502 with a progressive phase offset of 17/64xPRF=95.625 degrees, and the third transmitter TX3 encoding its chirp waveforms 503 with a progressive phase offset of 43/64xPRF=241.875 degrees.”). The co-prime spacing creates non-uniform, non-consecutive spacing between zero-radial velocity positions, resulting in non-consecutive empty sub-bands in the Doppler spectrum pattern.
Regarding Claims 7, 17, and 27, Wu et al. (‘049) in view of Shapir et al. teaches the network device according to claim 1.
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches wherein a phase code of the sensing signal is the same as at least one phase code of the at least one other network device ([0018]: “selected embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to LFM waveform transceivers that are configured to implement Doppler division multiplexing (DDM) MIMO operations by having each transmitter emit an identical frequency ramp chirp signal with specified phase offset values encoded onto individual chirps of the entire chirp sequence”).
While Wu primarily teaches different phase codes per transmitter, the system is capable of using the same phase code for multiple transmitters, as the phrase “at least one other network device” in the claim means one or more other devices could share the same code.
Regarding Claims 8, 18, and 28, Wu et al. (‘049) in view of Shapir et al. teaches the network device according to claim 7.
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches wherein each network device of the plurality of network devices is associated with a respective Doppler spectrum puncturing vector ([0025]: “In selected embodiments, the Doppler disambiguation module 25 is configured to construct or access, for each transmitter, a binary FIR filter with tap delays following a unique co-prime spacing sequence associated with the transmitter”; [0053]: “Continuing with this example, the three peak location codes can be represented in a binary sequence format to form three binary FIR filter decoding vectors.”; [0054-0059] and similar binary representations for C2 and C3). The binary FIR filter decoding vectors function as Doppler spectrum puncturing vectors, indicating which Doppler bins are associated with each transmitter through a pattern of 1s and 0s.
Regarding Claims 9, 19, and 29, Wu et al. (‘049) in view of Shapir et al. teaches the network device according to claim 8.
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches wherein each element of the Doppler spectrum puncturing vector indicates whether a corresponding sub-band is punctured ([0053]: “the three codes C1, C2, C3 can be written in binary form”; [0054]: “C1=[100000000000000001000000000000000000000000011]”; [0060]: “The digital disambiguation processing step 706 may also include a Doppler peak detection step 712 which performs threshold detection on the Doppler spectrum of the received radar signal to produce a binary sequence of the length of Doppler spectrum samples with ‘1’s only at the entries corresponding to the detected cells meeting the threshold requirement.”). Each element (bit) in the binary vector indicates whether that particular Doppler bin position is associated with the transmitter (1) or not (0), effectively indicating puncturing.
Regarding Claim 11, Wu et al. (‘049) in view of Shapir et al. teaches:
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches A method for wireless communications at a network device of a plurality of network devices, the method comprising: ([0001]: “The present invention is directed in general to radar systems and associated methods of operation.”; [0037]: “reference is now made to FIG. 7 which depicts a simplified flow chart 700 showing the logic for using CPC DDM techniques to form a virtually large MIMO radar arrays.”).
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches transmitting, by the network device, a sensing signal for sensing one or more targets, ([0038]: “To generate the transmit radar signals, the radar system first generates a reference chirp signal (step 702), such as by periodically modulating a transmit radar signal with a frequency and/or phase shift.”; [0045]: “At step 704, the CPC chirp signals are conditioned and amplified for transmission over the corresponding transmit channel circuits using Doppler division multiplexing techniques.”).
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches wherein the transmitted sensing signal and at least one sensing signal transmitted by at least one other network device of the plurality of network devices comprise one or more phase codes and a same frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW), ([0018]: “selected embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to LFM waveform transceivers that are configured to implement Doppler division multiplexing (DDM) MIMO operations by having each transmitter emit an identical frequency ramp chirp signal with specified phase offset values encoded onto individual chirps of the entire chirp sequence”; [0039]: “At step 703, the reference chirp signal is applied to a plurality of slow-time phase shifters to generate co-prime coded (CPC) phase-shifted chirp signals for a plurality of transmit channels.”).
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches and wherein each phase code of each sensing signal represents one or more Doppler spectrum patterns; ([0033]: “By encoding the DDM MIMO waveforms using co-prime based zero-radial velocity frequency spacing, individual transmitter Doppler spectrum detections can be robustly and unambiguously reconstructed to association with the correct transmitter”; [0035]: “the arrangement of the zero-radial velocity resulting in spacing values of {17, 26, 21} are co-primes in PRF/64 [Hz] units.”).
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches receiving, by the network device, at least one echo signal from the one or more targets; ([0046]: “At step 705, the reflected CPC-coded chirp signals from the different transmit channels are received, conditioned, and converted for digital processing at the receiver.”).
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches mitigating, by the network device, Doppler ambiguity in a Doppler spectrum from the at least one echo signal based on the one or more Doppler spectrum patterns; ([0047]: “At step 706, the digital processing is applied to separate the reflected transmit channel signals for each transmitter using DDM MIMO CPC disambiguation signal processing steps.”; [0017]: “disambiguating overlapped Doppler spectrums from multiple transmitters by encoding a Doppler division MIMO waveform using co-prime based zero-radial velocity frequency spacing to allow robust and unambiguous reconstruction of individual transmitters Doppler spectrum detections.”).
Wu et al. (‘049) does not explicitly teach, but Shapir et al. teaches increase a pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of one or more sensing signals of the sensing signal and the at least one sensing signal to mitigate the Doppler ambiguity. (Page 0175, Abstract: “This work proposes a method to resolve Doppler ambiguity by generating an additional PRF digitally, without waveform diversity.”; Page 0177, Section III: “Notice that the PRI becomes equal to Tc, which results in T-times increased vₐₘₐₓ, comparing to the conventional per-transmitter processing for a radar with T transmitters.”).
The motivation to combine Wu with Shapir for claim 11 is the same as provided for claim 1 above. Wu teaches methods of operation and provides a flow chart (FIG. 7) for CPC DDM processing [0037]. The claimed method steps correspond directly to the apparatus functionality of claim 1, and the same obviousness rationale applies.
Regarding Claims 12-19, these claims depend from claim 11 and incorporate limitations substantially similar to claims 2-9. Wu et al. (‘049) in view of Shapir et al. teaches these limitations as method steps for the same reasons provided in the analysis of claims 2-9 above.
Regarding Claim 21, Wu et al. (‘049) in view of Shapir et al. teaches:
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches A non-transitory computer-readable medium of a network device of a plurality of network devices, the non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to: ([0037]: “the control logic and methodology shown in FIG. 7 may be implemented as hardware and/or software on a host computing system, processor, or microcontroller unit that includes processor and memory for storing programming control code for constructing and operating a large virtual MIMO radar arrays”).
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches output a sensing signal for transmission for sensing one or more targets, ([0038]: “To generate the transmit radar signals, the radar system first generates a reference chirp signal (step 702), such as by periodically modulating a transmit radar signal with a frequency and/or phase shift.”; [0045]: “At step 704, the CPC chirp signals are conditioned and amplified for transmission”).
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches wherein the sensing signal and at least one sensing signal transmitted by at least one other network device of the plurality of network devices comprise one or more phase codes and a same frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW), ([0018]: “selected embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to LFM waveform transceivers that are configured to implement Doppler division multiplexing (DDM) MIMO operations by having each transmitter emit an identical frequency ramp chirp signal with specified phase offset values encoded onto individual chirps of the entire chirp sequence”; [0039]: “At step 703, the reference chirp signal is applied to a plurality of slow-time phase shifters to generate co-prime coded (CPC) phase-shifted chirp signals for a plurality of transmit channels.”).
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches and wherein each phase code of each sensing signal represents one or more Doppler spectrum patterns; ([0033]: “By encoding the DDM MIMO waveforms using co-prime based zero-radial velocity frequency spacing, individual transmitter Doppler spectrum detections can be robustly and unambiguously reconstructed to association with the correct transmitter”).
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches receive at least one echo signal from the one or more targets; ([0046]: “At step 705, the reflected CPC-coded chirp signals from the different transmit channels are received, conditioned, and converted for digital processing at the receiver.”).
Wu et al. (‘049) teaches mitigate Doppler ambiguity in a Doppler spectrum from the at least one echo signal based on the one or more Doppler spectrum patterns; ([0047]: “At step 706, the digital processing is applied to separate the reflected transmit channel signals for each transmitter using DDM MIMO CPC disambiguation signal processing steps.”; [0017]: “disambiguating overlapped Doppler spectrums from multiple transmitters by encoding a Doppler division MIMO waveform using co-prime based zero-radial velocity frequency spacing”).
Wu et al. (‘049) does not explicitly teach, but Shapir et al. teaches increase a pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of one or more sensing signals of the sensing signal and the at least one sensing signal to mitigate the Doppler ambiguity. (Page 0175, Abstract: “This work proposes a method to resolve Doppler ambiguity by generating an additional PRF digitally, without waveform diversity.”; Page 0177, Section III: “Notice that the PRI becomes equal to Tc, which results in T-times increased vₐₘₐₓ, comparing to the conventional per-transmitter processing for a radar with T transmitters.”).
The motivation to combine Wu with Shapir for claim 21 is the same as provided for claim 1 above. Wu [0037] teaches storing programming control code in memory for implementing the disclosed techniques. The claimed instructions on computer-readable medium correspond directly to the apparatus functionality of claim 1, and the same obviousness rationale applies. Shapir’s DMPRF technique is implementable in software/firmware without hardware changes (Page 1), making it suitable for embodiment as computer-readable instructions.
Regarding Claims 22-29, these claims depend from claim 21 and incorporate limitations substantially similar to claims 2-9. Wu et al. (‘049) in view of Shapir et al. teaches these limitations as instructions stored on computer-readable medium for the same reasons provided in the analysis of claims 2-9 above.
Conclusion
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/REMASH R GUYAH/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
/VLADIMIR MAGLOIRE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3648