Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 18/391,211

CROSS ROUTE BASED CONFIGURABLE LOCAL OSCILLATOR GENERATION CIRCUIT

Non-Final OA §102§103
Filed
Dec 20, 2023
Examiner
LE, LANA N
Art Unit
2648
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
Qualcomm Incorporated
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
82%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
4m
Est. Remaining
96%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 82% — above average
82%
Career Allowance Rate
493 granted / 602 resolved
+19.9% vs TC avg
Moderate +14% lift
Without
With
+13.8%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 11m
Avg Prosecution
42 currently pending
Career history
638
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
0.7%
-39.3% vs TC avg
§103
74.3%
+34.3% vs TC avg
§102
7.0%
-33.0% vs TC avg
§112
5.3%
-34.7% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 602 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §103
CTNF 18/391,211 CTNF 77787 DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Election/Restrictions 08-25 AIA Applicant's election with traverse of the restriction requirement in the reply filed on 03/30/2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that there is not a serious search or examination burden . This is not found persuasive because the claims are clearly distinct and recite different features, utility, modes of operation, and/or method steps. Regarding invention I and invention II, applicant stated that the two inventions are the same, e.g. a transceiver system and method for operating the transceiver with local oscillator cross routing circuitry, however, this is not the only limitation in the recited claims. For example, invention I comprises selectively coupling a particular divider of the one or more dividers to the mixer, to at least one auxiliary mixer of the one or more auxiliary mixers, or any combination thereof, however invention II comprises receive a clock signal from a divider at a local oscillator cross routing circuitry, and selectively couple the divider to the primary mixer buffer, the auxiliary mixer buffer, or both, and processing, by the primary mixer buffer, the auxiliary mixer buffer, or both, the clock signal and providing the processed clock signal to a corresponding mixer, invention III has separate utility, components, and mode of operation using different circuitry such as selectively coupling at least one of the first oscillator or the second oscillator to the first mixer or to the second mixer via a corresponding auxiliary mixer buffer, and wherein the first oscillator and the first mixer are part of a first transmit or receive chain and the second oscillator and the second mixer are part of a second transmit or receive chain. Invention IV has separate utility, components, and mode of operation using different circuitry such as selectively couple the oscillator to mixers of multiple chains; and processing, by the primary mixer buffer, the first auxiliary mixer buffer, the second auxiliary mixer buffer of a second chain, or a combination thereof, the clock signal and providing the clock signal to a corresponding mixer of the mixers. These method steps, utilities, subject, and modes of operations using different circuitry/components are clearly different and distinct from one another, and thus it was determined by the examiner that the inventions are distinct inventions and require different fields of search such as using different search queries, different classification areas, and different search tools. These different searches would indeed cause a serious search and/or examination burden on the examiner if restriction is not required . The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL. Claim Objections 07-29-01 AIA Claim 8 is objected to because of the following informalities: claim 8, lines 5-6 recites “wherein the first second oscillator corresponds to a secondary…..”. The claim appears to be reciting ““wherein the second oscillator corresponds to a secondary…..” . Appropriate correction is required. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 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 – 07-08-aia AIA (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. 07-15 AIA Claim s 1, 4, 5, 7, 11, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102( a)(1 ) as being anticipated by Gerna et al (US 2013/0,244,598; hereinafter Gerna) . Regarding claim 1, Gerna disclose a transceiver system, comprising: one or more receive chains (500) (Figs. 9A, 9B; paras. [0086]-[0087]); and one or more transmit chains (100, 300) (Figs. 1A, 1B, 3A, 3B; ¶ [0004]), wherein a receive chain of the one or more receive chains or a transmit chain of the one or more transmit chains includes: one or more dividers (308, 310-1,….310-N) configured to receive a clock signal (CK) (Fig. 3A); local oscillator (LO) cross routing circuitry (312, 316) coupled to the one or more dividers (308, 310-1,….310-N) (Fig. 3A; paras. [0059]-[0060]); a mixer (304) coupled to the LO cross routing circuitry (312, 316); and one or more auxiliary mixers (306) coupled to the LO cross routing circuitry (312, 316), wherein the LO cross routing circuitry (312, 316) is configured to selectively couple a particular divider (308 or 310-1) of the one or more dividers (308, 310-1,….310-N) to the mixer (304), to at least one auxiliary mixer (306) of the one or more auxiliary mixers (306), or any combination thereof (Fig. 3A) (paras. [0061]-[0062]). Regarding claim 4, Gerna disclose the transceiver system of claim 1, wherein: at least one auxiliary mixer of the one or more auxiliary mixers is smaller in area than the mixer (the area of the components of the first mixer 304 is less than the area of the components of the second mixer 306, e.g. the area of the components of the first mixer 304 may be 3X, and the area of the components of the second mixer 306 may be 20X; ¶ [0058]). Regarding claim 5, Gerna disclose the transceiver system of claim 1, wherein: the one or more dividers include a primary divider (308) and an auxiliary divider (310-1); and the LO cross routing circuitry (312, 316) is further configured to selectively couple the primary divider (308) of the one or more dividers (308, 310-1….310-N) to the mixer (304) and to at least one auxiliary mixer (306) of the one or more auxiliary mixers (¶ [0064]). Regarding claim 7, Gerna disclose the transceiver system of claim 5, wherein the LO cross routing circuitry (312, 316) is further configured to selectively couple the auxiliary divider (310-1) of the one or more dividers (308, 310-1….310-N) to the mixer (304) and to at least one auxiliary mixer (306) of the one or more auxiliary mixers (Fig. 3A) (¶ [0062]). Regarding claim 11, Gerna disclose the transceiver system of claim 1, wherein the one or more dividers (350, 352, 380, 382) include a primary divider (352) and an auxiliary divider (350, 382), wherein the LO cross routing circuitry (312) is coupled to the primary divider and the auxiliary divider, and further comprising: a primary mixer buffer (358) coupled to the LO cross routing circuitry (312) and to the mixer (304); and one or more auxiliary mixer buffers (354, 356, 384, 386) coupled to the LO cross routing circuitry (312) and to a respective auxiliary mixer (306) of the one or more auxiliary mixers, wherein the LO cross routing circuitry (312) is configurable to provide signals from the primary divider (352) to the mixer (304) via the primary mixer buffer (358) or to at least one auxiliary mixer (306) of the one or more auxiliary mixers via a corresponding auxiliary mixer buffer (356, 386) of the one or more auxiliary mixer buffers (Figs. 4-5; paras. [0069]-[0074]). Regarding claim 16, Gerna disclose the transceiver system of claim 1, wherein the LO cross routing circuitry (312, 316) is configured to selectively couple the particular divider (352) of the one or more dividers (352, 350, 380, 382) to the mixer (304) via corresponding mixer buffer (358) and to at least one auxiliary mixer (306) of the one or more auxiliary mixers via a corresponding auxiliary mixer buffer (356), and wherein the mixer buffer (358) comprises a two-stage mixer buffer or a single-tone generator buffer (Fig. 4; paras. [0069]-[0071]) . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 2 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gerna et al (US 2013/0,244,598; hereinafter Gerna) in view of Duan (WO 2021,018,057) . Regarding claim 2, Gerna disclose the transceiver system of claim 1, wherein the LO cross routing circuitry comprises one or more traces and optionally one or more switches (312, 316); and the LO cross routing circuitry (312, 316) provides a plurality of selectable paths from the particular divider (308, 310-1….310-N) for providing the clock signal (CK) to the mixer (304), the least one auxiliary mixer (306), or both (Fig. 3A). Gerna do not explicitly disclose the oscillator cross routing circuitry comprises one or more traces. In the same field of endeavor, Duan disclose an oscillator cross routing circuitry comprises one or more traces (pg. 5, lines 29-30, pg. 6, lines 25-34). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to do so in order to reduce the phase fluctuation that exist in the different phase lock loop output phases on each channel and thereby improve the phase consistency of each channel (Duan; pg. 6, lines 25-34). Regarding claim 15, Gerna disclose the transceiver system of claim 1, wherein the LO cross routing circuitry is coupled to the particular divider (e.g. 352) via a buffer (354) and comprises a plurality of switches (312, 316) and a plurality of traces (Fig. 3A), and wherein the plurality of traces and the plurality of switches (312, 316) are configured to selectively provide an output of the buffer (354) to two primary paths or to two auxiliary paths (Fig. 4; paras. [0069]-[0071]). Gerna do not explicitly disclose the oscillator cross routing circuitry comprises one or more traces. In the same field of endeavor, Duan disclose an oscillator cross routing circuitry comprising one or more traces (pg. 5, lines 29-30, pg. 6, lines 25-34). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to do so in order to reduce the phase fluctuation that exist in the different phase lock loop output phases on each channel and thereby improve the phase consistency of each channel (Duan; pg. 6, lines 25-34) . 07-21-aia AIA Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gerna et al (US 2013/0,244,598; hereinafter Gerna) in view of Sabouri et al (US 2024/0,430,071; hereinafter Sabouri) . Regarding claim 3, Gerna disclose the transceiver system of claim 1, wherein Gerna do not disclose the receive chain or the transmit chain includes: a harmonic rejection mixer including the mixer and at least one auxiliary mixer of the one or more auxiliary mixers. In the same field of endeavor, Sabouri disclose the receive chain or the transmit chain includes: a harmonic rejection mixer (HRM) including the mixer (330A) and at least one auxiliary mixer (330B) of the one or more auxiliary mixers (¶ [0067]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to do so in order to eliminate or attenuate one or more spurious or harmonic frequencies of the mixers . 07-21-aia AIA Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gerna et al (US 2013/0,244,598; hereinafter Gerna) in view of Mori et al (US 5,578,968; hereinafter Mori) . Regarding claim 6, Gerna disclose the transceiver system of claim 5, wherein Gerna do not disclose the primary divider has a fixed divide ratio or a configurable divide ratio, and the auxiliary divider has a configurable divide ratio. In the same field of endeavor, Mori disclose the primary divider has a fixed divide ratio or a configurable divide ratio, and the auxiliary divider has a configurable divide ratio (clm. 9, 19). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to do so in order for the control module to arbitrarily and finely set the division ratio for each divider based on the applicable circuit design choice of interest (Mori; col 6, lines 51-67) . 07-21-aia AIA Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gerna et al (US 2013/0,244,598; hereinafter Gerna) in view of Gudem et al (US 2014/0,179,253; hereinafter Gudem) . Regarding claim 8, Gerna disclose the transceiver system of claim 5, wherein Gerna do not disclose the transceiver system further comprising: a first oscillator coupled to the one or more dividers and configured to generate the clock signal; and a second oscillator coupled to the one or more dividers, wherein the first oscillator corresponds to a primary or high power mode oscillator, wherein the first second oscillator corresponds to a secondary or low power mode oscillator, and wherein the second oscillator has second type different from a first type of the first oscillator. In the same field of endeavor, Gudem disclose a first oscillator (primary local oscillator 112, 212) coupled to the one or more dividers (214) and configured to generate the clock signal; and a second oscillator (secondary local oscillator 122, 236) coupled to the one or more dividers (238), wherein the first oscillator (112, 212) corresponds to a primary or high power mode oscillator, wherein the second oscillator (122, 236) corresponds to a secondary or low power mode oscillator, and wherein the second oscillator has second type different from a first type of the first oscillator (Figs. 1-3; paras. [0015]-[0031], [0051]-[0052], [0062]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to do so in order to provide inputs to the one or more frequency dividers from two separate local oscillators that generate the different clock signals (e.g. clock signals CK_b and CK of Gerna; Fig. 2C) . Gerna and Gudem do not explicitly disclose wherein the second oscillator has second type different from a first type of the first oscillator. However, the examiner takes official notice that the first and second oscillator are different types. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to do so in order to provide diverse oscillators that may not be the same, e.g. local oscillators having different power levels or frequency ranges, or different types of local oscillators, e.g. crystal local oscillator or voltage controlled local oscillator, based on the applicable type of oscillator design choice of interest . 07-21-aia AIA Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gerna et al (US 2013/0,244,598) in view of Aniruddhan et al (US 2009/0,075,689) . Regarding claim 9, Gerna disclose the transceiver system of claim 1, wherein Gerna disclose the area of the components of the first mixer 304 is less than the area of the components of the second mixer 306, e.g. the area of the components of the first mixer 304 may be 3X, and the area of the components of the second mixer 306 may be 20X (¶ [0058]). Gerna do not disclose the mixer is a primary mixer and the one or more auxiliary mixers include two or more auxiliary mixers, and further comprising: a second primary mixer, wherein the two or more auxiliary mixers are each smaller in area than the primary mixers, consume less power, or both. In the same field of endeavor, Aniruddhan disclose the mixer is a primary mixer and the one or more auxiliary mixers include two or more auxiliary mixers, and further comprising: a second primary mixer, wherein the two or more auxiliary mixers are each smaller in area than the primary mixers, consume less power, or both (plurality of mixers MX1-MX7 wherein the mixers can be different sizes or different power; Figs. 3, 6, 7; paras. [0027]-[0036]). Thus, the examiner takes official notice that the two or more auxiliary mixers are each smaller in area than the primary mixers, consume less power, or both. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention in order to have more diverse mixers and to reduce overall circuitry size and to save power . 07-21-aia AIA Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gerna et al (US 2013/0,244,598) in view of Rogers et al (US 2019/0,207,610; hereinafter Rogers) . Regarding claim 10, Gerna disclose the transceiver system of claim 1, further comprising: an oscillator (514, crystal oscillator) coupled to the one or more dividers (516, 200) and configured to generate the clock signal, wherein the oscillator comprises a phase-locked loop (PLL), a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), a ring-VCO (RVCO), or an inductance-capacitance VCO (LCVCO) (paras. [0038], [0045], [0087]). Gerna do not explicitly disclose the oscillator comprises a phase-locked loop (PLL), a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), a ring-VCO (RVCO), or an inductance-capacitance VCO (LCVCO). In the same field of endeavor, Rogers disclose the oscillator comprises a phase-locked loop (100) or VCO (105, 305) coupled to one or more dividers (306) (Figs. 1-3; paras. [0029]-[0035], [0042]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to do so in order to provide the clock signal to the divider (Rogers; paras. [0007], [0010]) . 07-21-aia AIA Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gerna et al (US 2013/0,244,598) in view of Rong et al (US 9,529,380; hereinafter Rong) . Regarding claim 17, Gerna disclose the transceiver system of claim 1, wherein the LO cross routing circuitry (312, 316) is configured to selectively couple the particular divider (352) of the one or more dividers (352, 350, 380, 382) to the mixer (304) via corresponding mixer buffer (358) and to at least one auxiliary mixer (306) of the one or more auxiliary mixers via a corresponding auxiliary mixer buffer (356) (Fig. 4; paras. [0069]-[0071). Gerna do not disclose the mixer buffer comprises a not-and (NAND) gate and a buffer. In the same field of endeavor, Rong disclose the mixer buffer comprises a not-and (NAND) gate (430) and a buffer (440) (Fig. 4A; col 7, lines 14-63). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to do so in order to reduce the harmonic current ripple (col 6, line 38-59) . Allowable Subject Matter 12-151-08 AIA 07-43 12-51-08 Claim s 12-14 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. Regarding claim 12, Gerna disclose the transceiver system of claim 1, wherein the cited prior art fails to further disclose or fairly suggest the one or more dividers includes a single, shared divider, and further comprising: a delay-locked loop (DLL) coupled to the single, shared divider and coupled to the one or more auxiliary mixers via at least one or more auxiliary mixer buffers and coupled to the mixer via at least a mixer buffer. Regarding claim 13, the cited prior art fails to further disclose or fairly suggest the transceiver system of claim 12, wherein the one or more auxiliary mixer buffers comprises a shared auxiliary mixer buffer for two or more auxiliary paths. Regarding claim 14, the cited prior art fails to further disclose or fairly suggest the transceiver system of claim 13, wherein the shared auxiliary mixer buffer includes a shared not-and (NAND) gate for multiple auxiliary paths of the two or more auxiliary paths and a buffer for each path of the multiple auxiliary paths. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LANA N LE whose telephone number is (571) 272-7891. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30am-4:30pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Wesley Kim, can be reached at (571) 272-7867. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent- center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /LANA N LE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2648 Application/Control Number: 18/391,211 Page 2 Art Unit: 2648 Application/Control Number: 18/391,211 Page 3 Art Unit: 2648 Application/Control Number: 18/391,211 Page 4 Art Unit: 2648 Application/Control Number: 18/391,211 Page 5 Art Unit: 2648 Application/Control Number: 18/391,211 Page 6 Art Unit: 2648 Application/Control Number: 18/391,211 Page 7 Art Unit: 2648 Application/Control Number: 18/391,211 Page 8 Art Unit: 2648 Application/Control Number: 18/391,211 Page 9 Art Unit: 2648 Application/Control Number: 18/391,211 Page 10 Art Unit: 2648 Application/Control Number: 18/391,211 Page 11 Art Unit: 2648 Application/Control Number: 18/391,211 Page 12 Art Unit: 2648 Application/Control Number: 18/391,211 Page 13 Art Unit: 2648 Application/Control Number: 18/391,211 Page 14 Art Unit: 2648
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Prosecution Timeline

Dec 20, 2023
Application Filed
Jun 15, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102, §103 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
82%
Grant Probability
96%
With Interview (+13.8%)
2y 11m (~4m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 602 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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