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.
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 1-9, 11-19, 21, 22, 24, 26, 27, 29, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WOO (Pub. No.: US 2023/0216557 A1) and further in view of Sandhu (Pub. No.: US 2014/0199952 A1) and ONAKA (Pub. No.: US 2023/0140655 A1).
With respect to claim 1:
WOO discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more memories (fig. 6, item 530 is a memory); and one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories (fig. 6, item 520, 612, 614 are processors), the one or more processors individually or collectively configured to: determine a mapping of more than one antenna element, associated with an antenna module or panel that is integrated with a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) (fig. 6 with processors 520, 612, 614 mapping to first or second antenna 642 as disclosed in parag. 0260); select antenna elements from the more than one antenna element based at least in part on one or more conditions being satisfied (parag. 0260-0261 discloses that processor select antenna based on condition i.e. temperature); and perform, via the antenna elements, a communication to a network node (parag. 0260-0261);
WOO discloses selection of antenna but does not explicitly disclose a single RFIC port and switch for switching the antenna disposed within the antenna module or panel.
Sandhu discloses antenna selection using switch (parag. 0048 discloses how controller switches from one antenna to the other).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Sandhu into the teaching of WOO in order to provide reduction of the transmission power level in response to the operating temperature exceeding the predetermined threshold value.
ONAKA discloses single RFID port and antenna module with a switch disposed within the module (fig. 1 with antenna module 100 having plurality of switches 113, 116 and 117). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of ONAKA into the teaching of WOO in view of Sandhu in order to improve the degree of freedom of layout in a communication device while suppressing deterioration of antenna characteristics in an antenna module.
With respect to claims 2, 12, 22, 27:
WOO discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the antenna module is associated with a plurality of antenna elements and a plurality of RFIC ports (fig. 6 with antenna module 646 associated with antenna element 648), and a first quantity associated with the plurality of antenna elements is greater than a second quantity associated with the plurality of RFIC ports (fig. 6 with antenna module 646 greater than ports).
With respect to claims 3, 13:
WOO discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively configured to select the antenna elements based at least in part on a blockage event associated with the UE, and the blockage event is associated with one of a hand or finger blockage in relation to certain antenna elements of the antenna module or panel (parag. 0260-0261 discloses selecting based on condition i.e temperature).
With respect to claims 4, 14:
WOO discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more conditions comprise power conditions or thermal conditions associated with the UE (parag. 0048 and 0260-0261).
With respect to claims 5, 15:
WOO discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more conditions comprise elemental gain variations associated with the UE (parag. 0054).
With respect to claims 6, 16
WOO discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more conditions comprise a polarization performance associated with the UE (parag. 0075).
With respect to claims 7, 17:
WOO discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more conditions comprise an impact of a UE housing or a material on a performance of the antenna element (parag. 0097).
With respect to claims 8, 18, 24, 29:
WOO discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the mapping of the more than one antenna element to the RFIC port is done on a per polarization basis (parag. 0075).
With respect to claims 9, 19:
WOO discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the RFIC port is associated with the RFIC that is integrated with the antenna module or panel (fig. 6, 16-18).
With respect to claims 11, 26:
WOO discloses a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: determining a mapping of more than one antenna element, associated with an antenna module or panel that is integrated with a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) (fig. 6 with processors 520, 612, 614 mapping to first or second antenna 642 as disclosed in parag. 0260); selecting antenna elements from the more than one antenna element based at least in part on one or more conditions being satisfied (parag. 0260-0261 discloses that processor select antenna based on condition i.e. temperature); and performing, via the antenna elements, a communication to a network node (parag. 0260-0261);
WOO discloses selection of antenna but does not explicitly disclose a single RFIC port and switch for switching the antenna disposed within the antenna module or panel.
Sandhu discloses antenna selection using switch (parag. 0048 discloses how controller switches from one antenna to the other).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Sandhu into the teaching of WOO in order to provide reduction of the transmission power level in response to the operating temperature exceeding the predetermined threshold value.
ONAKA discloses single RFID port and antenna module with a switch disposed within the module (fig. 1 with antenna module 100 having plurality of switches 113, 116 and 117). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of ONAKA into the teaching of WOO in view of Sandhu in order to improve the degree of freedom of layout in a communication device while suppressing deterioration of antenna characteristics in an antenna module.
With respect to claim 21:
WOO discloses a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a set of instructions for wireless communication, the set of instructions comprising: one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to: determine a mapping of more than one antenna element, associated with an antenna module or panel that is integrated with a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) (fig. 6 with processors 520, 612, 614 mapping to first or second antenna 642 as disclosed in parag. 0260); select antenna elements from the more than one antenna element based at least in part on one or more conditions being satisfied (parag. 0260-0261 discloses that processor select antenna based on condition i.e. temperature); and perform, via the antenna elements, a communication to a network node (parag. 0260-0261);
WOO discloses selection of antenna but does not explicitly disclose a single RFIC port and switch for switching the antenna disposed within the antenna module or panel.
Sandhu discloses antenna selection using switch (parag. 0048 discloses how controller switches from one antenna to the other).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Sandhu into the teaching of WOO in order to provide reduction of the transmission power level in response to the operating temperature exceeding the predetermined threshold value.
ONAKA discloses single RFID port and antenna module with a switch disposed within the module (fig. 1 with antenna module 100 having plurality of switches 113, 116 and 117).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of ONAKA into the teaching of WOO in view of Sandhu in order to improve the degree of freedom of layout in a communication device while suppressing deterioration of antenna characteristics in an antenna module.
Claims 10, 20, 23, 25, 28, 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WOO (Pub. No.: US 2023/0216557 A1), Sandhu (Pub. No.: US 2014/0199952 A1), ONAKA (Pub. No.: US 2023/0140655 A1) as applied to claim 1 above and further in view of Tehrani (Pub. No.: US 2005/0078649 A1).
With respect to claims 10, 20, 25, 30:
The rejection of claim 1 is incorporated; WOO, Sandhu and ONAKA do not explicitly disclose wherein a switching loss associated with the one or more switches used in selecting the antenna elements is smaller than a beamforming gain associated with a dynamic selection of the antenna elements.
Tehrani discloses wherein a switching loss associated with the one or more switches used in selecting the antenna elements is smaller than a beamforming gain associated with a dynamic selection of the antenna elements (parag. 0019). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Tehrani into the teaching of WOO in view of Sandhu and ONAKA in order to prevent channel effects, such as fading channels and multipath interference, with antenna diversity.
With respect to claims 23, 28:
WO discloses the non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein the antenna elements are selected based at least in part on one or more of: power conditions or thermal conditions associated with the UE, elemental gain variations associated with the UE, a polarization performance associated with the UE, an impact of a UE housing or a material on a performance of the antenna element, or a blockage event associated with the UE (parag. 0011 discloses temperature condition of antenna).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is 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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AJIBOLA A AKINYEMI whose telephone number is (571)270-1846. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:00pm, EST.
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/AJIBOLA A AKINYEMI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2649