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 .
Response to Amendment
The amendments filed March 10, 2026 have been entered. Claims 1-18 remain pending in this application. Claims 1, 3-7, 11-15, and 17-18 have been amended. Claims 19-20 have been cancelled. Applicant’s amendments to the claims have overcome all objections, and the rejections of claims 17-18 under 35 U.S.C. 102 set forth in the Non-Final Rejection filed December 10, 2025.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see 8-12, filed March 10, 2026, with respect to the rejections of claims 1 and 9 under 35 U.S.C. 102 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejections have been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, new grounds of rejection are made in view of Yeager et al. (US 10097283 B1). The Non-Final Rejection of December 10, 2025 has been retracted.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4 and 9-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and (a)(2) as being anticipated by Yeager et al. (US 10097283 B1), hereinafter Yeager.
Regarding claim 1, Yeager teaches a method for adaptive tuning of a crystal oscillator (XO), having a crystal (XTAL), in a wireless device (col. 1 lines 12-19, “A wireless transmitter, such as a radio frequency [RF] transmitter, generally uses a high frequency crystal oscillator to provide a reference frequency with low phase noise and high stability for RF signal transmission. However, the high frequency crystal oscillator may consume more power than a low frequency crystal oscillator. In addition, the wireless transmitter generally also uses a time base, such as a 32.768 kHz watch crystal, for determining the current time.”), the method including:
measuring performance parameters of the wireless device based on field conditions of the wireless device with at least one sensor, wherein the field conditions are natural environment conditions experienced by the XO (col. 1 lines 47-55, “In some implementations, the RF transmitter may further include a temperature sensor arranged to measure a temperature of the RF oscillator, where the control circuit may be further configured to obtain an operating temperature of the RF oscillator from the temperature sensor, and determine whether a calibration of the RF oscillator is needed based on at least one of the operating temperature of the RF oscillator or an elapsed time since the RF oscillator was last calibrated at the operating temperature.”; watches are portable devices and may be exposed to natural environment conditions such as temperatures that are high or low enough to impact XO performance),
calibrating XO parameters of the wireless device with the performance parameters to generate updated XO parameters, and tuning the XO with the updated XO parameters (col. 2 lines 15-25, “In some implementations of the RF transmitter, the control circuit may be configured to, in response to the calibrating of the RF oscillator using the RTC oscillator, update the calibration table based on the operating temperature, a calibration time, and one or more calibration coefficients determined by the calibration. In some implementations, the control circuit may be further configured to identify an entry in the calibration table corresponding to the operating temperature of the RF oscillator, and apply the one or more calibration coefficients in the identified entry to the RF oscillator.”; col. 9 lines 51-58, “For example, control circuit 140 may store calibration coefficients, which may also be referred to as oscillator tuning words [OTWs], for different operating temperatures in a memory 145, obtain the operating temperature of HF oscillator 130 and determine whether HF oscillator 130 needs to be calibrated before the data transmission, and control the data transmission and/or the calibration of HF oscillator 130 before or during the data transmission.”).
Regarding claims 2 and 10, Yeager teaches the method of claim 1 and the wireless device of claim 9 respectively, Yeager teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the performance parameters are selected from the group consisting of
an XO temperature (col. 5 lines 23-34, “The control circuit monitors the operating temperature of the LC oscillator and a time since the last calibration occurred. For example, when the operating temperature of the LC oscillator has changed sufficiently, or when the calibration data has expired, the control circuit will couple the watch-crystal oscillator to the LC oscillator to calibrate the LC oscillator. By only selectively calibrating the LC oscillator at particular times, and otherwise using the LC oscillator in an open-loop mode, the potential longer settling time associated with the calibration using the low frequency crystal oscillator may be acceptable.”), an XO temperature slope, an XO temperature acceleration, narrow band in-phase and quadrature components (NBIQ) of a received global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signal, a maximum acceleration of a satellite (SV) of a constellation of GNSS satellites, and a cycle slip count of a carrier phase cycle of the received GNSS signal.
Regarding claims 3 and 11, Medapalli teaches the method of claim 1 and the wireless device of claims 9 respectively,
wherein calibrating the XO parameters includes determining an instantaneous failure of key performance indicator (KPI) values utilizing the XO parameters, wherein the KPI values are predetermined values, adjusting the XO parameters with the performance parameters to generate adjusted XO parameters, determining that the adjusted XO parameters achieve the KPI values, and setting the adjusted XO parameters as the updated XO parameters (col. 2 lines 1-25, “In some implementations, the control circuit may be further configured to determine that the calibration of the RF oscillator is needed in response to a determination of at least one of: (1) the calibration table does not include an entry corresponding to the operating temperature, or (2) an entry in the calibration table corresponding to the operating temperature indicates an elapsed time greater than a threshold time value. In some implementations, the determination that the calibration table does not include an entry corresponding to the operating temperature may include determining that the operating temperature differs from the calibration temperature of any entry in the calibration table by more than a threshold temperature value. In some implementations of the RF transmitter, the control circuit may be configured to, in response to the calibrating of the RF oscillator using the RTC oscillator, update the calibration table based on the operating temperature, a calibration time, and one or more calibration coefficients determined by the calibration. In some implementations, the control circuit may be further configured to identify an entry in the calibration table corresponding to the operating temperature of the RF oscillator, and apply the one or more calibration coefficients in the identified entry to the RF oscillator.”; Examiner is construing a threshold of a difference between an operating temperature and a calibration temperature as a KPI value as claimed).
Regarding claims 4 and 12, Yeager teaches the method of claim 3 and the wireless device of claim 11 respectively,
wherein the KPI values are indicative of KPIs selected from the group consisting of an XO temperature (col. 2 lines 1-14, “In some implementations, the control circuit may be further configured to determine that the calibration of the RF oscillator is needed in response to a determination of at least one of: (1) the calibration table does not include an entry corresponding to the operating temperature, or (2) an entry in the calibration table corresponding to the operating temperature indicates an elapsed time greater than a threshold time value. In some implementations, the determination that the calibration table does not include an entry corresponding to the operating temperature may include determining that the operating temperature differs from the calibration temperature of any entry in the calibration table by more than a threshold temperature value.”), an XO temperature slope, an XO temperature acceleration, narrow band in-phase and quadrature components (NBIQ) of a received global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signal, a maximum acceleration of a satellite (SV) of a constellation of GNSS satellites, and a cycle slip count of a carrier phase cycle of the received GNSS signal, and
the updated XO parameters are configured to control properties of the XTAL that are selected from a group consisting of a temperature multiplier (col. 3 lines 37-45, “In some implementations, the control circuit may further be configured to identify an entry in the calibration table corresponding to the operating temperature of the LC oscillator and indicating an elapsed time no greater than the threshold time value, and apply the one or more calibration coefficients in the identified entry to the LC oscillator.”), a decay factor, thermal transients, hysteresis, an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter coefficient, and a thermistor selection.
Regarding claim 9, Yeager teaches a wireless device comprising:
a crystal oscillator (XO) having a crystal (XTAL) (col. 5 lines 35-39, “A wireless transmitter, such as an RF transmitter, may include, for example, a phase-locked loop [PLL] or a frequency-locked loop [FLL] that uses a crystal oscillator as a temperature-stable reference frequency to generate RF signals with low phase noise.”),
at least one transceiver (col. 7 lines 50-54, “Also note that even though the techniques are described using wireless transmitters as examples, the techniques disclosed herein may be used in a wired transmitter, a wired or wireless receiver, or a wired or wireless transceiver.”),
at least one sensor, at least one memory, and at least one processor in signal communication with the XO (col. 13 lines 12-22, “Wireless transmitter 300 may also include a control circuit 360. Control circuit 360 may include a controller/scheduler 362 acting as the main controller of control circuit 360. Controller scheduler 362 may be implemented using, for example, a processor and associated memory, an ASIC, an FPGA, a PLC, or a PLD. Controller/scheduler 362 may receive time information from clock circuit 314 and requests to transmit data from transmitter/packetizer/sequencer 370. Control circuit 360 may include or be connected to a temperature sensor 368 configured to measure the operating temperature of LC oscillator 330.”), the at least one transceiver, the at least one sensor, and the at least one memory, the at least one processor configured to:
measure performance parameters of the wireless device based on field conditions of the wireless device with the at least one sensor, wherein the field conditions are natural environment conditions experienced by the XO (col. 1 lines 47-55, “In some implementations, the RF transmitter may further include a temperature sensor arranged to measure a temperature of the RF oscillator, where the control circuit may be further configured to obtain an operating temperature of the RF oscillator from the temperature sensor, and determine whether a calibration of the RF oscillator is needed based on at least one of the operating temperature of the RF oscillator or an elapsed time since the RF oscillator was last calibrated at the operating temperature.”; watches are portable devices and may be exposed to natural environment conditions such as temperatures that are high or low enough to impact XO performance),
calibrate XO parameters of the wireless device with the performance parameters to generate updated XO parameters (col. 2 lines 15-25, “In some implementations of the RF transmitter, the control circuit may be configured to, in response to the calibrating of the RF oscillator using the RTC oscillator, update the calibration table based on the operating temperature, a calibration time, and one or more calibration coefficients determined by the calibration. In some implementations, the control circuit may be further configured to identify an entry in the calibration table corresponding to the operating temperature of the RF oscillator, and apply the one or more calibration coefficients in the identified entry to the RF oscillator.”; col. 9 lines 51-58, “For example, control circuit 140 may store calibration coefficients, which may also be referred to as oscillator tuning words [OTWs], for different operating temperatures in a memory 145, obtain the operating temperature of HF oscillator 130 and determine whether HF oscillator 130 needs to be calibrated before the data transmission, and control the data transmission and/or the calibration of HF oscillator 130 before or during the data transmission.”), and
tune the XO with the updated XO parameters (col. 2 lines 15-25, “In some implementations of the RF transmitter, the control circuit may be configured to, in response to the calibrating of the RF oscillator using the RTC oscillator, update the calibration table based on the operating temperature, a calibration time, and one or more calibration coefficients determined by the calibration. In some implementations, the control circuit may be further configured to identify an entry in the calibration table corresponding to the operating temperature of the RF oscillator, and apply the one or more calibration coefficients in the identified entry to the RF oscillator.”; col. 9 lines 51-58, “For example, control circuit 140 may store calibration coefficients, which may also be referred to as oscillator tuning words [OTWs], for different operating temperatures in a memory 145, obtain the operating temperature of HF oscillator 130 and determine whether HF oscillator 130 needs to be calibrated before the data transmission, and control the data transmission and/or the calibration of HF oscillator 130 before or during the data transmission.”).
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 5-6 and 13-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yeager in view of Wu et al. (US 10772053 B2), hereinafter Wu.
Regarding claims 5 and 13, Yeager teaches the method of claim 1 and the wireless devices of claim 9 respectively, but fails to teach further including
determining whether there is an assistance signal from a network entity available.
However, Wu teaches further including
determining whether there is an assistance signal from a network entity available (col. 5 lines 42-50, “In general, an exemplary XO can be temperature-calibrated using one or more wireless signals of known frequency, wherein the wireless signals may be satellite signals [e.g., GNSS signals], or signals from a calibrated terrestrial source such as, WWAN, CDMA, etc. Frequency assistance can be derived from these wireless signals to estimate a frequency of the XO at a given temperature, and thereby the XO frequency and temperature can be correlated to form frequency-temperature samples.”; col. 10 lines 19-32, “In another embodiment, the temperature-calibration may be triggered based on a trigger condition comprising the presence of device 100 in an outdoor location or outdoor environment or with a clear view to the sky. This embodiment relates to the availability of at least one strong received signal, such as a strong GNSS signal, from signal sources 110 a-n when device 100 is outdoors or with a clear or unobstructed view to the sky. Several mechanisms related to the trigger conditions may be used in this embodiment. In a first example, the trigger condition can be based on strength of the GNSS signals received at receiver 102, for example, because strong signal strength can indicate that device 100 is present in an outdoor location, and thus can be used initiate temperature-calibration of XO 106.”).
Yeager and Wu are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of crystal oscillator temperature calibration and tuning. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Yeager with the teachings of Wu with the motivation of being able to calibrate an XO with reference to a GNSS satellite, which provides a more stable and reliable reference than the local reference oscillator of Yeager.
Regarding claims 6 and 14, Yeager in view of Wu teaches the method of claim 5 and the wireless device of claim 13 respectively, but Yeager fails to teach further including:
receiving assisted XO parameters of the assistance signal from the network entity if the assistance signal is available,
wherein calibrating the XO parameters of the wireless device with the performance parameters to generate the updated XO parameters includes utilizing the assisted XO parameters.
However, Wu teaches
receiving assisted XO parameters of the assistance signal from the network entity if the assistance signal is available (col. 5 lines 42-50, “In general, an exemplary XO can be temperature-calibrated using one or more wireless signals of known frequency, wherein the wireless signals may be satellite signals [e.g., GNSS signals], or signals from a calibrated terrestrial source such as, WWAN, CDMA, etc. Frequency assistance can be derived from these wireless signals to estimate a frequency of the XO at a given temperature, and thereby the XO frequency and temperature can be correlated to form frequency-temperature samples.”; col. 10 lines 19-32, “In another embodiment, the temperature-calibration may be triggered based on a trigger condition comprising the presence of device 100 in an outdoor location or outdoor environment or with a clear view to the sky. This embodiment relates to the availability of at least one strong received signal, such as a strong GNSS signal, from signal sources 110 a-n when device 100 is outdoors or with a clear or unobstructed view to the sky. Several mechanisms related to the trigger conditions may be used in this embodiment. In a first example, the trigger condition can be based on strength of the GNSS signals received at receiver 102, for example, because strong signal strength can indicate that device 100 is present in an outdoor location, and thus can be used initiate temperature-calibration of XO 106.”; Examiner is construing the reception of a signal of a known frequency which is used to calibrate an XO as the reception of assisted XO parameters),
wherein calibrating the XO parameters of the wireless device with the performance parameters to generate the updated XO parameters includes utilizing the assisted XO parameters (col. 6 lines 28-37, “As previously explained, temperature-calibration of the XO can involve the formulation of a frequency-temperature [FT] model or FT curve. The FT model can be expressed as a polynomial equation or function, wherein frequency is expressed as an nth degree polynomial function of temperature. At least some of the parameters or coefficients of this polynomial equation are unknown quantities for an XO and accordingly, an objective of the XO temperature-calibration can comprise determining or refining the coefficients of the FT model for the XO.”).
Yeager and Wu are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of crystal oscillator temperature calibration and tuning. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Yeager with the teachings of Wu with the motivation of being able to calibrate an XO with reference to a GNSS satellite, which provides a more stable and reliable reference than the local reference oscillator of Yeager.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-16 are objected to as being dependent upon rejected base claims, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claims and any intervening claims, along with correction of minor informalities as described above.
Claims 17-18 are allowed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ERIC K HODAC whose telephone number is (571) 270-0123. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 8-6.
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/ERIC K HODAC/Examiner, Art Unit 3648 /VLADIMIR MAGLOIRE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3648
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