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 § 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 1-15, 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Jiang (Pub. No.: US 2018/0323834 A1).
With respect to claim 1:
Jiang discloses a method of operating an electronic device having antennas arranged in a phased antenna array (abstract discloses phase antenna array), the method comprising: receiving, using the phased antenna array, radio-frequency signals transmitted by an external device (fig. 1 which are properly represented in fig 9 and 10 discloses device 10-1 and 10-2 transmitting to and receiving from each other); measuring, using transceiver circuitry communicably coupled to the phased antenna array, wireless performance metric data from the radio-frequency signals received by the phased antenna array (abstract discloses measuring of performance metric at the antenna); disabling, using one or more processors, a first set of antennas in the phased antenna array, the antennas in the first set being selected based on the wireless performance metric data (parag. 0035 discloses the antennas may be used together or one of the antennas may be switched into use while other antenna(s) are switched out of use); and conveying, using a second set of antennas in the phased antenna array, wireless data while the first set of antennas is disabled (parag. 0035 discloses that when the performance of one antenna is below threshold, it switches to another antenna).
With respect to claim 2:
Jiang discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the external device is a wireless base station and conveying the wireless data comprises conveying the wireless data with the wireless base station (fig. 1 discloses an electronic device 10-1 and 10-2 which are whireless devices as in parag. 0001-0003).
With respect to claim 3:
Jiang discloses the method of claim 2, wherein receiving the radio-frequency signals comprises receiving a reference signal transmitted by the wireless base station (parag. 0059).
With respect to claim 4:
Jiang discloses the method of claim 3, wherein receiving the reference signal comprises receiving the reference signal during a beam training interval (parag. 0059).
With respect to claim 5:
Jiang discloses the method of claim 1, wherein receiving the radio-frequency signals comprises receiving the radio-frequency signals using each antenna in the phased antenna array (fig. 10 discloses devices with phase antenna array).
With respect to claim 6:
Jiang discloses the method of claim 5, wherein receiving the radio-frequency signals using each antenna in the phased antenna array comprises: activating a single antenna in the phased antenna array while a remainder of the antennas in the phased antenna array are disabled; and changing, over time, the single antenna in the phased antenna array that is active while the phased antenna array receives the radio-frequency antennas (parag. 0085-0087 discloses using a single antenna array which the rest are not in use).
With respect to claim 7:
Jiang discloses the method of claim 5, wherein receiving the radio-frequency signals using each antenna in the phased antenna array comprises: activating a plurality of antennas in the phased antenna array while a remainder of the antennas in the phased antenna array are disabled; and changing, over time, the plurality of antennas in the phased antenna array that is active while the phased antenna array receives the radio-frequency antennas (parag. 0085-0087).
With respect to claim 8:
Jiang discloses the method of claim 5, wherein receiving the radio-frequency signals using each antenna in the phased antenna array comprises: concurrently activating each antenna in the phased antenna array; and changing phase settings of the antennas in the phased antenna array while the phased antenna array receives the radio-frequency antennas (parag. 0071 discloses concurrent activation of antenna).
With respect to claim 9:
Jiang discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the first set of antennas includes only one antenna in the phased antenna array (parag. 0042).
With respect to claim 10:
Jiang discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the first set of antennas includes a plurality of antennas in the phased antenna array (fig. 5).
With respect to claim 11:
Jiang discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising: normalizing, using the one or more processors, transmit power levels of the second set of antennas based on a number of antennas in the second set of antennas (parag. 0051, 0059 and 0060).
With respect to claim 12:
Jiang discloses an electronic device comprising: antennas arranged in a phased antenna array, the phased antenna array being configured to receive a reference signal transmitted by an external device (abstract discloses phase antenna array and also fig.5, 9 and 10); signal paths coupled to the antennas in the phased antenna array (fig. 5, 9 and 10 discloses antenna with signal path); transceiver circuitry communicably coupled to the antennas in the phased antenna array over the signal paths (fig. 1, item 10 is an electronic device which is described as transceiver as in fig. 2, parag. 0038); and one or more processors configured to deactivate a first subset of the signal paths based on the reference signal received by the phased antenna array (fig. 2, item 14 is a control circuitry), the transceiver circuitry being configured to transmit wireless data to the phased antenna array over a second subset of the signal paths while the first subset of the signal paths is deactivated (parag. 0035 discloses the antennas may be used together or one of the antennas may be switched into use while other antenna(s) are switched out of use);
With respect to claim 13:
Jiang discloses the electronic device of claim 12, wherein the phased antenna array includes a first set of antennas coupled to the first subset of the signal paths and a second set of antennas coupled to the second subset of the signal paths, the electronic device further comprising: phase and magnitude controllers disposed on the second subset of the signal paths and configured to form, using the second set of antennas, a signal beam, the one or more processors being configured to steer the signal beam over a plurality of beam pointing directions (parag. 0085-0089).
With respect to claim 14:
Jiang discloses the electronic device of claim 12, wherein the phased antenna array includes a first antenna, a second antenna, and a third antenna, the phased antenna array being configured to receive, at a first time, the reference signal using the first antenna while the second antenna and the third antenna are inactive; receive, at a second time, the reference signal using the second antenna while the first antenna and the third antenna are inactive; and receive, at a third time, the reference signal using the third antenna while the first antenna and the second antenna are inactive (parag. 0085-0093).
With respect to claim 15:
Jiang discloses the electronic device of claim 12, wherein the phased antenna array includes a first antenna, a second antenna, and a third antenna, the phased antenna array being configured to receive, at a first time, the reference signal using the first antenna and the second antenna while the third antenna is inactive; receive, at a second time, the reference signal using the second antenna and the third antenna while the first antenna is inactive; and receive, at a third time, the reference signal using the first antenna and the third antenna while the second antenna is inactive (parag. 0085-0093).
With respect to claim 17:
Jiang discloses the electronic device of claim 12, wherein the phased antenna array includes a first set of antennas coupled to the first subset of the signal paths and a second set of antennas coupled to the second subset of the signal paths (parag. 0031), the electronic device further comprising: an antenna panel having a substrate (parag. 0027, 0032 and 0039 discloses antenna substrate), the first set of antennas and the second set of antennas being disposed on the substrate, the transceiver circuitry being configured to generate wireless performance metric data based on the reference signal as received by the first set of antennas and the second set of antennas (abstract and parag. 0055 discloses performance metric), and the one or more processors being configured to deactivate the first subset of the signal paths based on the wireless performance metric data (parag. 0035 discloses the antennas may be used together or one of the antennas may be switched into use while other antenna(s) are switched out of use).
With respect to claim 18:
Jiang discloses a method of operating a user equipment (UE) device to communicate with a wireless base station, the method comprising: receiving, using a phased antenna array, a reference signal transmitted by the wireless base station (fig. 1 discloses two devices transmitting to each other in which one can be UE and the other base station as in parag. 0016); measuring, using transceiver circuitry, wireless performance metric data from the reference signal received by the phased antenna array (abstract and parag. 0035); detecting, using one or more processors and based on the wireless performance metric data, a first set of antennas in the phased antenna array that are at least partially overlapping an external object (parag. 0075 discloses that control circuitry 14 may identify a sector and corresponding array that overlaps with the location of device 10-2 based on the orientation data); and conveying, using a second set of antennas in the phased antenna array that is different from the first set of antennas, wireless data while the first set of antennas is inactive (parag. 0035 discloses that when the performance of one antenna is below threshold, it switches to another antenna).
With respect to claim 19:
Jiang discloses the method of claim 18, further comprising: forming, using the second set of antennas but not the first set of antennas, a signal beam oriented in a beam pointing direction; and adjusting, using the one or more processors, the beam pointing direction (parag. 0006 discloses how controller control the beam by steering to different direction to get performance metric and based on result, antenna beam is steered to the right direction and the rest of the antenna are being inactive or deactivated).
With respect to claim 20:
Jiang discloses the method of claim 18, wherein receiving the reference signal comprises: disabling different subsets of antennas in the phased antenna array at different times while the phased antenna array receives the reference signal (parag. 0006 discloses how controller control the beam by steering to different direction to get performance metric and based on result, antenna beam is steered to the right direction and the rest of the antenna are being inactive or deactivated).
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.
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jiang (Pub. No.: US 2018/0323834 A1) and further in view of Zhang (Pub. No.: US 2022/0416417 A1).
With respect to claim 16:
The rejection of claim 12 is incorporated; Jiang does not explicitly disclose wherein the phased antenna array is configured to concurrently receive the reference signal using each antenna in the phased antenna array, the electronic device further comprising: phase and magnitude controllers disposed on the signal paths, the one or more processors being configured to adjust phase settings of the phase and magnitude controllers while the phased antenna array receives the reference signal.
Zhang discloses wherein the phased antenna array is configured to concurrently receive the reference signal using each antenna in the phased antenna array (parag. 0155), the electronic device further comprising: phase and magnitude controllers disposed on the signal paths, the one or more processors being configured to adjust phase settings of the phase and magnitude controllers while the phased antenna array receives the reference signal (parag. 0059). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Zhang into the teaching of Jiang in order to determine misalignment conditions between a transmitting antenna array and a receiving antenna array and pre-compensating the antenna arrays based on the misalignment condition.
Conclusion
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/AJIBOLA A AKINYEMI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2649