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 .
Priority
Applicant’s claim for domestic benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) is acknowledged.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement submitted has been considered by the Examiner and made of record in the application file.
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 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Applicant Admitted Prior Art (AAPA) in view of Mizokami USPN 2010/0231305.
Consider claim 1, AAPA discloses a radio frequency front end system comprising: a power amplifier (see [0006]: “…PA is saturated and applies a ramp as a function of a control signal…”); and a
However, AAPA does not explicitly disclose a variable driver stage the variable driver stage and configured to apply a linear ramp by setting a gain to a fixed target value.
In the related field of endeavor, disclose a variable driver stage the variable driver stage and configured to apply a linear ramp by setting a gain to a fixed target value (see figs. 3 and 22A: Note linear ramp function; [0062;0078;0165]: “…the gain of the variable gain driver 34 is set to a level suitable for transmission, and the variable gain driver 34 amplifies a modulated signal outputted by the quadrature modulator 30. The transmitting power amplifier 36 amplifies, with a fixed gain, the signal which has been amplified by the variable gain driver 34… the control word WCA is described to increment by "1" in a binary code sequentially, and the binary code is converted into the control word TLWA which changes the gain linearly in 0.125 dB steps. Consequently, the gain is changed linearly…it is possible to realize the variable gain driver which has low power consumption, a small occupied area, a low receiving band noise, and a linear gain profile…”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at a time before the effective filing date of the claimed subject matter to improve the power amplifier (PA) of AAPA with the variable driver PA of Mizokami to arrive at the instant recitation in order to provide a robust PA for a wide range of operating frequencies.
Examiner Note: See detailed independent claim 1 rejection analysis for any remaining independent claim rejections.
Consider claim 16, AAPA discloses a wireless device comprising a transceiver (see [0006]), and a radio frequency front end system, the radio frequency front end system including: a power amplifier (see [0006]); and
However, AAPA does not explicitly disclose a variable driver stage the variable driver stage and configured to apply a linear ramp by setting a gain to a fixed target value.
In the related field of endeavor, disclose a variable driver stage the variable driver stage and configured to apply a linear ramp by setting a gain to a fixed target value (see figs. 3 and 22A: Note linear ramp function; [0062;0078;0165]: “…the gain of the variable gain driver 34 is set to a level suitable for transmission, and the variable gain driver 34 amplifies a modulated signal outputted by the quadrature modulator 30. The transmitting power amplifier 36 amplifies, with a fixed gain, the signal which has been amplified by the variable gain driver 34… the control word WCA is described to increment by "1" in a binary code sequentially, and the binary code is converted into the control word TLWA which changes the gain linearly in 0.125 dB steps. Consequently, the gain is changed linearly…it is possible to realize the variable gain driver which has low power consumption, a small occupied area, a low receiving band noise, and a linear gain profile…”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at a time before the effective filing date of the claimed subject matter to improve the power amplifier (PA) of AAPA with the variable driver PA of Mizokami to arrive at the instant recitation in order to provide a robust PA for a wide range of operating frequencies.
Claims 2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Applicant Admitted Prior Art (AAPA) in view of Mizokami USPN 2010/0231305 in view of Spiegel USPN 2013/0043953.
Consider claim 2 and 17 as applied to respective claim, AAPA as modified does not explicitly disclose the variable driver stage is configured to detect an envelope of the V.sub.ramp control signal to set the ramp profile.
In the related field of endeavor, Spiegel disclose the variable driver stage is configured to detect an envelope of the V.sub.ramp control signal to set the ramp profile (see [0038]: “…supply modulator (120) may modulate the supply voltage based on an envelope characteristic (e.g. signal envelope variations) of the modulating signal and/or an output signal level control signal (V.sub.RAMP)…”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at a time before the effective filing date of the claimed subject matter to improve the power amplifier (PA) of AAPA as modified with the envelope detector PA of Spiegel to arrive at the instant recitation in order to provide a more accurate PA.
Consider claim 17 as applied to respective claim, AAPA as modified does not explicitly disclose the variable driver stage is configured to detect an envelope of the V.sub.ramp control signal to set the ramp profile.
In the related field of endeavor, Spiegel the variable driver stage is configured to detect an envelope of the V.sub.ramp control signal to set the ramp profile (see [0038]: “…supply modulator (120) may modulate the supply voltage based on an envelope characteristic (e.g. signal envelope variations) of the modulating signal and/or an output signal level control signal (V.sub.RAMP)…”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at a time before the effective filing date of the claimed subject matter to improve the power amplifier (PA) of AAPA as modified with the envelope detector PA of Spiegel to arrive at the instant recitation in order to provide a more accurate PA.
Claims 3 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Applicant Admitted Prior Art (AAPA) in view of Mizokami USPN 2010/0231305 in view of Bai USPN 2018/0375479.
Consider claim 3 as applied to respective claim, AAPA as modified does not explicitly disclose the variable driver stage includes a switch configured to receive the V.sub.ramp control signal directly from a transceiver.
In the related field of endeavor, Bai disclose the variable driver stage includes a switch configured to receive the V.sub.ramp control signal directly from a transceiver (see fig. 4; [0086]: “… working mode selection signal is in the GSM mode, a GSM_enble switch in FIG. 4 is closed, and the control circuit selects the baseband signal Vramp as the basis voltage…”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at a time before the effective filing date of the claimed subject matter to improve the power amplifier (PA) of AAPA as modified with the multimode PA of Bai to arrive at the instant recitation in order to provide a smaller scale PA.
Consider claim 18 as applied to respective claim, AAPA as modified does not explicitly disclose the variable driver stage includes a switch configured to receive the V.sub.ramp control signal directly from the transceiver.
In the related field of endeavor, Bai disclose (see fig. 4; [0086]: “… working mode selection signal is in the GSM mode, a GSM_enble switch in FIG. 4 is closed, and the control circuit selects the baseband signal Vramp as the basis voltage…”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at a time before the effective filing date of the claimed subject matter to improve the power amplifier (PA) of AAPA as modified with the multimode PA of Bai to arrive at the instant recitation in order to provide a smaller scale PA.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-15 and 19-20 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: See respective claim recitations.
Conclusion
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Examiner should be directed to Fayyaz Alam whose telephone number is (571) 270-1102. The Examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 9:30am to 7:00pm.
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Fayyaz Alam
December 26, 2025
/FAYYAZ ALAM/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2674