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
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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(s) 1-11 and 16-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi (US Patent No. 9,282,564 B2) hereinafter Choi in view of Janani et al (US Patent No. 11,652,560 B1) herein after Janani. .
Per claims 1, 16 and 20, Choi discloses a system/method comprising: a radio device (see figure 1 and item 500) that comprises: a plurality of ports characterized by one or more radio-frequency (RF) imbalances relative to one another (a transmission port x(t) can have a 0 degree and/or 90 degree after the phase shifters, see column 1 lines 10-45 and column 2 lines 55-67; and a reference port (see figure 5A); and circuitry configured to calibrate the radio device by compensating for the one or more RF imbalances based at least in part on the reference port (see figure 1 and 5A, and corresponding paragraphs).
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Choi is silent about a plurality of ports as respect to more than one transceiver. In the same field of the endeavor, Janani teaches multiple transceivers with beamforming antennas (poly0polorzaton antenna) (see figure 2 or 4). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of this application to modify Choi’s radio system with additional transceivers and antennas to increase the throughput.
Per claim 2 and 17, combination of Choi and Janani further teaches the radio device further comprises at least one of: a transmitter that includes: a plurality of transmitter ports characterized by the one or more RF imbalances (see figure 4 and 5 leakage from transmitter to a receiver or between the transceivers); and a reference transmitter port; and a receiver that includes: a plurality of receiver ports characterized by the one or more RF imbalances; and a reference receiver port (see figure 5 A the four ports around the “weight calculation” can construed as the reference transmitter port and the reference receiver port).
Per claim 3, combination of Choi and Janani further teaches that the radio device further comprises at least one antenna configured to support communication in connection with the plurality of ports and the reference port (see figure 5A of Choi and figure 2 of Janani).
Per claim 4 and 18, combination of Choi and Janani further teaches that a first RF coupler that communicatively couples the at least one antenna, a first port included in the plurality of ports, and the reference port; and a second RF coupler that communicatively couples the at least one antenna, a second port included in the plurality of ports, and the reference port (see figure 5A of Choi and figure 2 of Janani).
Per claim 5 and 19, combination of Choi and Janani further teaches that a first RF coupler that communicatively couples the an RF divider that communicatively couples the reference port to the first RF coupler and the second RF coupler (see figure 5A, paths after PA wherein power has be divided to multiple phase shifters).
Per claim 6, Choi further teaches that the first RF coupler comprises a first input port communicatively coupled to the first port, a first coupled port communicatively coupled to the RF divider, and a first transmitted port communicatively coupled to the at least one antenna; and the second RF coupler comprises a second input port communicatively coupled to the second port, a second coupled port communicatively coupled to the RF divider, and a second transmitted port communicatively coupled to the at least one antenna (see figure 5A).
Per claim 7, Choi further teaches the at least one antenna is tri-polarized to support communications of three different polarizations in connection with the plurality of ports and the reference port (see figure 1, and corresponding paragraphs).
Per claim 8, Choi further teaches that a differential between phases of the plurality of ports; or a differential between gains of the plurality of ports (see column 5 and lines 12-36).
Per claim 9-11, Choi further teaches that a first port that supports communications via a first RF signal of a first polarization; and a second port that supports the communications via a second signal of a second polarization that differs from the first polarization; and the reference port supports the communications via a third signal of a third polarization that differs from the first polarization and the second polarization; the first polarization and the second polarization are oriented orthogonal to one another; and the third polarization is oriented at an offset between the first polarization and the second polarization; the first polarization comprises a horizontal polarization; the second polarization comprises a vertical polarization; and the third polarization comprises a positive or negative slant 45-degree polarization (see figure 5A, column 5 and lines 1-56 (based on the phase equations, it covers 0, 45, 90, 135,180 degrees and more).
Claim(s) 12, 13, and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi and Janani as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Arnett et al (US2020/0067184 A1), hereinafter Arnett.
Per claim 12, combination of Choi and Janani teaches the circuitry is further configured to: generate a matrix representing a characterization of the radio device based at least in part on the reference port; determine one or more calibration factors based at least in part on the matrix; and calibrate the radio device to account for the one or more calibration factors (see Choi: column 1 lines 10-45 and formulas 1-11 based on the Hibert transformation and figure 1 and 5A). combination of Choi and Janani doesn’t teach the utilization of matrix to capture all the signals characterization from the transceivers. Arnett teaches such feature (see para. 0006). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to improve the calibration of signals from multiple transceivers instead of just one.
Per claim 13, Choi further teaches one or more estimates of polarization states of the plurality of ports; one or more estimates of the one or more RF imbalances; and a target calibration response (see figure 1 and 5A and corresponding paragraphs, a target to remove echo from the signal).
Per claim 15, Choi, Janani and Arnett further teach that the one or more calibration factors comprise a target-response matrix representing an objective calibration of the radio device; and the circuitry is further configured to calibrate the radio device based at least in part on the target-response matrix (see Choi: figure 1 and 5A and corresponding paragraphs, a target to remove echo from the signal and Arnett para.0006).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 14 is 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.
Conclusion
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YUWEN . PAN
Supervisory Patent Examiner
Art Unit 2649
/YUWEN PAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2649