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 § 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.
Claims 1-4 and 6-8 and 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hur et al. (U.S. 9,231,527).
Regarding claim 1, Hur et al. (hereinafter, Ref~527) discloses (e.g., please see Figs. 1-16 and related text for details) a power amplifier circuit (see circuit of Fig. 1) comprising:
an external input terminal (see Si or Vi of Fig. 1) and an external output terminal (Vo of Fig. 1);
a first power amplifier (e.g., 101 or 102 of Fig. 3) having a first input terminal and a first output terminal, the first input terminal being connected to the external input terminal, the first output terminal being connected to the external output terminal as seen;
a second power amplifier (102 or 101 of Fig. 3) having a second input terminal and a second output terminal, the second input terminal being connected to the external input terminal, the second output terminal being connected to the external output terminal as seen;
a power supply terminal (e.g., battery terminal of Fig. 3) that receives from a power supply circuit (e.g., battery) a power supply voltage (Vdd1 or Vdd2 or Vdd3 of Fig. 3) that is supplied to the first power amplifier and controllably supplied to the second power amplifier; and
a switch (see 301 or 302 or 303 of Fig. 3) having a first terminal and a second terminal, the first terminal being connected to the power supply terminal, the second terminal being connected to the second power amplifier.
Ref~527 does NOT expressly suggest “wherein the switch is not connected in series along a path between the power supply terminal and the first power amplifier”. However, these are normal design parameters/features in the field depending on custom specifications. Specifically, one skilled in the art may employ the main amplifier 101 without the modulated power supply in order to minimize the cost at least.
In addition, one skilled in the art would also expect that the main amplifier 101 of Ref~527 is configured to operate at all time, while the peak amplifier 102 is configured to TURN ON during peaking period for a typical Doherty system, thus said peak amplifier would require a switch or the like to disconnect/disable the peaking amplifier from the power supply/bias voltage in order to minimize power consumption at least (please see Figs. 2-6 of Kakalski, U.S. 2008/0074735 for such widely-used feature, namely switches for enable/disable amplifiers from power supply), meeting claim 1.
Regarding claim 2, Hur et al. supports the claimed “wherein a size of the first power amplifier is different than a size of the second power amplifier” as described in the embodiment of Fig. 16, starting from col. 8, line 57+, meeting claim 2.
Regarding claim 3, Ref~527 supports the claimed “wherein the size of the second power amplifier is smaller than the size of the first power amplifier” as described in col. 8, starting from col. 8, line 57+, meeting claim 3.
Regarding claim 4, Ref~527 supports the claimed “wherein the power supply voltage received by the power supply terminal from the power supply circuit varies between multiple discrete voltage levels (at least three levels would be possible depending on switches 301:303 of Fig. 3) within one frame of a radio-frequency signal, meeting claim 4.
Regarding claim 6, Ref~527 discloses the power amplifier circuit according to Claim 1, further comprising: a transmission line (104 of Fig. 1) connected between the first output terminal of the first power amplifier (101 of Fig. 1) and the external output terminal, meeting claim 6.
Regarding claim 7, Ref~527 would be capable of supporting various conditions/configurations including the claimed “wherein: under a condition in which a power supply voltage of a first voltage level (e.g., Vdd1) is supplied to the power supply terminal and a first control signal indicating that the second power amplifier is to be used to amplify a radio-frequency signal is received, the switch connects the first terminal to the second terminal, since the peaking amplifier turns on (via switch control signals) when the input power is above a threshold as described in the embodiment of Fig. 1, starting col. 2, line 57+ ;
under another condition in which the power supply voltage of the first voltage level is supplied to the power supply terminal and a second control signal indicating that the second power amplifier is not to be used to amplify a radio-frequency signal is received, the switch does not connect the first terminal to the second terminal, since the peaking amplifier would be turned on when the main amplifier starts to go into compression as described in cols. 2-3; and
under a third condition in which a power supply voltage of a second voltage level (Vdd2), the second voltage level being lower than the first voltage level (see col. 3, between lines 45-55 for details), is supplied to the power supply terminal and the first control signal is received, the switch connects the first terminal to the second terminal, meeting claim 7.
Regarding claim 8, Ref~527 would be capable of supporting various configurations including the claimed “wherein: under a condition in which a power supply voltage of a first voltage level is supplied to the power supply terminal and a second control signal is received indicating that the second power amplifier is not to be used to amplify a radio-frequency signal, the switch does not connect the first terminal to the second terminal; under another condition in which a power supply voltage of a second voltage level, the second voltage level being lower than the first voltage level, is supplied to the power supply terminal and a first control signal indicating that the second power amplifier is to be used to amplify a radio-frequency signal is received, the switch connects the first terminal to the second terminal; and
under a third condition in which the power supply voltage of the second voltage level is supplied to the power supply terminal and the second control signal is received, the switch does not connect the first terminal to the second terminal”, since Ref~527 teaches that power supply 106 may change (via switching/selecting features among Vdd1:Vdd3 as shown in the single modulated power supply of Fig. 3 or dual modulated power supply of Fig. 16) the power supply voltage either or both the main and peaking amplifier based on one or more control signals as described in col. 6, between lines 10-20, meeting claim 8.
As to claims 17-19, these claims are merely means related to the same circuit having structures recited in claims 1-8. Since Ref~527 teaches the structure, thus the method related to such circuit are inherently disclosed, meeting claim 17-19.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5 and 9-16 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Response to Arguments
Applicants’ arguments with respect to claims 1-17 and 19 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicants are reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the date of this final action.
Conclusion
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HIEU P NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-8577. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 8:30AM-6:00PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, YOUNGHUIE HAN (Jessica) can be reached on 571-272-2078. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 703-872-9306.
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/HIEU P NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2843
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