Office Action Predictor
Application No. 18/454,740

Frequency Selective Digital Pre-Distortion Signal Generation

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Aug 23, 2023
Examiner
APPIAH, CHARLES NANA
Art Unit
2641
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
Qualcomm Incorporated
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
41%
Grant Probability
Moderate
1-2
OA Rounds
3y 2m
To Grant
49%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

41%
Career Allow Rate
20 granted / 49 resolved
Without
With
+8.0%
Interview Lift
avg trend
3y 2m
Avg Prosecution
20 pending
69
Total Applications
career history

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
2.2%
-37.8% vs TC avg
§103
52.4%
+12.4% vs TC avg
§102
24.0%
-16.0% vs TC avg
§112
12.5%
-27.5% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data

Office Action

§103
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 1-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim (US 20080152037) in view of Zhao (US 20140211882). In regards to claims 1, 11 and 21, Kim discloses a method, a wireless station and a wireless access point comprising: receiving an input signal at a signal path (Kim Fig. 1, 2 Item 101); evaluating a memory effect (Kim paragraph 0030, 0033, 0034, 0049) of the input signal on a Volterra series model (Kim paragraph 0051); adjusting coefficients of the Volterra series model (Kim paragraph 0051) based at least in part on the memory effect; generating a compensation signal (Kim Fig. 2 paragraph 0030, 0033, 0034, 0049, 0051) using the Volterra series model on the input signal; and generating a pre-distorted signal (Kim paragraph 0005) by applying a shiftable finite impulse response (FIR) (Kim Fig. 1, 2 paragraph 0007, 0034) to the compensation signal. Kim fails to teach Volterra kernel coefficients. However, Zhao discloses Volterra kernel coefficients (Zhao paragraph 0028-0030). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use Zhao’s discloses Volterra kernel coefficients in Kim’s method for improving converging speed (Zhao paragraph 0008). In regards to claims 2, 12 and 22, Kim in view of Zhao discloses a method, a wireless station and a wireless access point as described above. Kim in view of Zhao further discloses evaluating the memory effect includes evaluating the memory effect of the pre-distorted signal using Volterra kernels of the Volterra series model (Kim paragraph 0005, 0049 note: pre-distorted signal reads on PD). In regards to claims 3, 13 and 23, Kim in view of Zhao discloses a method, a wireless station and a wireless access point as described above. Kim in view of Zhao further discloses the shiftable FIR is programmed to filter lower out-of-band signal frequency distortions (Kim Fig. 5 note: this reads on (d) or (e) regions) associated with the input signal. In regards to claims 4, 14 and 24, Kim in view of Zhao discloses a method, a wireless station and a wireless access point as described above. Kim in view of Zhao further discloses the shiftable FIR is programmed to filter upper out-of-band signal frequency distortions (Kim Fig. 5 note: this reads on (b) or (c) regions) associated with the input signal (Kim Fig. 1, 2 Item 101). In regards to claims 5, 15 and 25, Kim in view of Zhao discloses a method, a wireless station and a wireless access point as described above. Kim in view of Zhao further discloses the shiftable FIR is programmed to filter in-band signal frequency distortions (Kim paragraph 0003) associated with the input signal. In regards to claims 6, 16 and 26, Kim in view of Zhao discloses a method, a wireless station and a wireless access point as described above. Kim in view of Zhao further discloses the input signal (Kim Fig. 1, 2 Item 101) and a reconstructed output signal (Kim Fig. 1, 2 Item 105) associated with the input signal are used to evaluate the memory effect. In regards to claims 7, 17 and 27, Kim in view of Zhao discloses a method, a wireless station and a wireless access point as described above. Kim in view of Zhao further discloses Volterra kernels of the Volterra series model (Zhao claim 1) are selected based, at least in part, on a power amplifier (Kim paragraph 0003) amplifying the pre-distorted signal. In regards to claims 8, 18 and 28, Kim in view of Zhao discloses a method, a wireless station and a wireless access point as described above. Kim in view of Zhao further discloses transmitting the pre-distorted signal to a power amplifier (Kim paragraph 0003, Zhao abstract); and producing, by the power amplifier, an amplified output signal of the pre-distorted signal having a suppressed non-linear distortion (Zhao claim 1) at a specific band. In regards to claims 9, 19 and 29, Kim in view of Zhao discloses a method, a wireless station and a wireless access point as described above. Kim in view of Zhao further discloses transmitting the pre-distorted signal to a power amplifier (Zhao Fig. 2 Item 204); producing, by the power amplifier, an amplified output signal of the pre-distorted signal having a suppressed non-linear distortion (Zhao abstract) at a specific band; applying the amplified output signal to the Volterra series model; evaluating and updated memory effect of the amplified output signal on the Volterra series model; and adjusting the Volterra kernel coefficients of the Volterra series model based, at least in part, on the updated memory effect (Zhao claim 1). In regards to claims 10, 20 and 30, Kim in view of Zhao discloses a method, a wireless station and a wireless access point as described above. Kim in view of Zhao further discloses the input signal is a wireless packet (Zhao paragraph 0022, 0023 note: this reads on CDMA, GSM and cellular network). Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HSINCHUN LIAO whose telephone number is (571)270-7701. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday, 8:00AM-4:00PM. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Charles Appiah can be reached at (571)272-7904. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /HSINCHUN LIAO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2641
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Aug 23, 2023
Application Filed
Aug 14, 2025
Non-Final Rejection — §103
Apr 07, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology. Study what changed to get past this examiner.

Patent 12584951
SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND DEVICES FOR AUTOMATIC SIGNAL DETECTION BASED ON POWER DISTRIBUTION BY FREQUENCY OVER TIME WITHIN A SPECTRUM
2y 5m to grant Granted Mar 24, 2026
Patent 12581003
HANDHELD ELECTRONIC DEVICE
2y 5m to grant Granted Mar 17, 2026
Patent 12579237
INTELLIGENT GALLERY MANAGEMENT FOR BIOMETRICS
2y 5m to grant Granted Mar 17, 2026
Patent 12581386
COMMUNICATION APPARATUS, CONTROL METHOD OF COMMUNICATION APPARATUS, AND COMPUTER-READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM
2y 5m to grant Granted Mar 17, 2026
Patent 12563372
ON-VEHICLE APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD
2y 5m to grant Granted Feb 24, 2026

AI Strategy Recommendation

Click below to generate an AI-powered prosecution strategy using examiner precedents, rejection analysis, and claim mapping.
Powered by AI — typically takes 5-10 seconds

Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
41%
Grant Probability
49%
With Interview (+8.0%)
3y 2m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 49 resolved cases by this examiner