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 § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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, 6, 7, 12, 13, 16 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LIM et al. (KR20090112052), see IDS filed on July 11, 2024, hereafter called LIM, this reference was used by Korean’s patent office.
Regarding claims 1 and 7, LIM discloses claimed invention except having a transconductance pre-amplifier stage configured to convert a voltage signal into a current signal, which is used by a filter stage to produce a desired output signal. LIM (Figs. 1, 2 and 5) discloses a receiver comprising: a filter stage including a main path (path including LNA (120)) and an auxiliary path (path including LNA (130) and filter (140)) connected in parallel, the main path passing a first signal including all of the current signal from antenna (110), note, there is only LNA (120) for amplifier signal from antenna (110), and the auxiliary path passing a second signal including only desired signal (out-of-band portion of the current signal), this is accomplished by filter (140); and a combination stage (150) configured to output a third signal corresponding to a difference between the first signal and the second signal, the third signal including only desired signal (an in-band portion of the current signal). Therefore, it appears LIM can perform the same function as claimed without the need of having the transconductance pre-amplifier for converting voltage signal into current signal, which is well-known function of the transconductance amplifier. Furthermore, depending on receive conditions of the circuit, such as receiving current or voltage, an engineering would have used a transimpedance amplifier to convert the current signal into a voltage signal or transconductance amplifier to convert voltage signal into current signal before a filter stage, respectively.
Regarding claims 6 and 12, wherein the auxiliary path is configured to adjust a frequency of an in-band receiving signal to be filtered by filter (140).
Regarding claims 16 and 20, LIM does not disclose a demodulator configured to demodulate the third signal; or a decoder configured to decode the third signal. However, in any practical use of LIM’s circuit the output signal from combination stage (150) would be connected to a further circuit which could be read as the claimed demodulator/decoder. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to utilize the demodulator/decoder in combination with the circuit of LIM.
Regarding claim 13, wherein notch filter (140) can be a high-pass filter, which is well-known in the art, configured to filter the in-band portion of the current signal.
Claim(s) 1, 6, 7, 12, 16 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dodley (6,151,373).
Regarding claims 1 and 7, Dodley discloses claimed invention except having a transconductance pre-amplifier stage configured to convert a voltage signal into a current signal, which is used by a filter stage to produce a desired output signal. Dodley (Fig. 3) discloses a receiver comprising: a filter stage including a main path (66) and an auxiliary path (64) connected in parallel, the main path (66) passing a first signal including all of the current signal from amplifier (58) via splitter (62), and the auxiliary path (64) passing a second signal including only desired signal (out-of-band portion of the current signal), this is accomplished by filter (76); and a combination stage (80) configured to output a third signal (82) corresponding to a difference between the first signal and the second signal, the third signal including only desired signal (an in-band portion of the current signal). Therefore, it appears Dodley can perform the same function as claimed without the need of having the transconductance pre-amplifier for converting voltage signal into current signal, which is well-known function of the transconductance amplifier. Furthermore, depending on receive conditions of the circuit, such as receiving current or voltage, an engineering would need a transimpedance amplifier to convert the current signal into a voltage signal or transconductance amplifier to convert voltage signal into current signal before a filter stage, respectively.
Regarding claims 6 and 12, wherein the auxiliary path is configured to adjust a frequency of an in-band receiving signal to be filtered by filter (76).
Regarding claims 16 and 20, Dodley discloses a demodulator (94) configured to demodulate the third signal.
Claim(s) 1, 6, 7, 12, 13, 16 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rofougaran (7,697,914).
Regarding claims 1 and 7, Rofougaran discloses claimed invention except having a transconductance pre-amplifier stage configured to convert a voltage signal into a current signal, which is used by a filter stage to produce a desired output signal. Note, Rofougaran (Fig. 6) discloses transconductance amplifier (206/208) for each path for converting RF voltage signal input (152) into current signal. Rofougaran (Fig. 6) discloses a receiver comprising: a filter stage including a main path (path including LNTA (206)) and an auxiliary path (path including LNTA (208)) and filter (204)) connected in parallel, the main path passing a first signal including all of the current signal from RF signal (152), note, there is only LNA (206) for amplifier signal from antenna RF signal (152), and the auxiliary path passing a second signal including only desired signal, this is accomplished by filter (204); and a combination stage (184) configured to output a third signal (154) corresponding to a difference between the first signal and the second signal, the third signal including only desired signal, see column 8, line 11 to column 9, line 3. Therefore, it appears Rofougaran can perform the same function as claimed without the need of having the transconductance pre-amplifier for converting voltage signal into current signal, which is well-known function of the transconductance amplifier. Furthermore, depending on receive conditions of the circuit, such as receiving current or voltage, an engineering would need a transimpedance amplifier to convert the current signal into a voltage signal or transconductance amplifier to convert voltage signal into current signal before a filter stage, respectively.
Regarding claims 6 and 12, wherein the auxiliary path is configured to adjust a frequency of an in-band receiving signal to be filtered by filter (76).
Regarding claims 16 and 20, Rofougaran does not disclose a demodulator configured to demodulate the third signal; or a decoder configured to decode the third signal. However, in any practical use of Rofougaran’s circuit the output signal from combination stage (150) would be connected to a further circuit which could be read as the claimed demodulator/decoder. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to utilize the demodulator/decoder in combination with the circuit of Rofougaran.
Regarding claim 13, wherein notch filter (204) can be a high-pass filter configured to filter the in-band portion of the current signal.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5, 8-15, 17, 18 and 21 are 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claims 2-5, 14, 15, prior art(s) does not disclose the main path includes N branches, each of the N branches corresponding to a different phase among N phases, each of the N branches including a first frequency down-conversion mixer and a first frequency up-conversion mixer connected in series, and N being an integer having a value of 2 or greater.
Regarding claims 8-11, 17 and 18, prior art(s) does not disclose the passing the first signal comprises: first down-converting the current signal; and first up-converting a result of the first down-converting to obtain the first signal.
Regarding claim 21, prior art(s) does not disclose the main path includes N branches, each of the N branches corresponding to a different phase among N phases, and N being an integer having a value of 2 or greater.
Conclusion
The prior arts made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kwon et al. (11,405,009) and Egri et al. (9,306,607) disclose multiple path, but lack the configuration and operation as claimed.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Khanh V. Nguyen whose telephone number is (571) 272-1767. The examiner can normally be reached from 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM EST.
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/KHANH V NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2843
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