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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of the invention corresponding to group I (claims 1-14) in the reply filed on July 14, 2025 is acknowledged.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on October 13, 2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 9-11 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claims 9 and 10: The term “any” should be changed to “any of” for grammatical reasons.
Claim 9: The limitation “corresponding a corresponding section” should be changed to “a corresponding section” for grammatical reasons.
Claim 11 should depend on claim 10 so as to provide antecedent basis for its claim terms.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1: The terms “first conductive structure” and “second conductive structure” are indefinite as it is unclear whether the claimed conductive structure is limited to a pair of conductive structures, as discussed in the specification (publication, para. [0033]), or a single conductive structure, as discussed in the specification (publication, para. [0034]). For examination purposes, the claim is interpreted to read on any number of conductive structures.
claim 9: The term “the first plurality” lacks antecedent basis in the claim. For examination purposes, claim 9 is interpreted as corresponding to the embodiment shown in figure 1F1.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 4, 6-8 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by CONWAY et al. (U.S. Publication No. 2021/0167509).
CONWAY, in figure 9, discloses:
1. A cavity backed antenna assembly (5000) comprising: a conductive lower wall (115) and two or more conductive side walls (116) at least in part defining a cavity; a first layer and a second layer each comprising a first dielectric material (310a) above the conductive lower wall and within the cavity; a third layer comprising a second dielectric material (340a) between and separating the first and second layers, the second dielectric material compositionally different from the first dielectric material; and a first conductive structure (one arm of 220, as shown in fig. 3) and a second conductive structure (other arm of 220, as shown in fig. 3) separated by a third dielectric material (210), wherein the first conductive structure and the second conductive structure are within the cavity and above the first and second layers.
4. The cavity backed antenna assembly of claim 1, wherein the second dielectric material has a dielectric constant of at most 1.5 (para. [0040]).
6. The cavity backed antenna assembly of claim 1, wherein: the two or more conductive side walls comprises a first conductive sidewall, a second conductive sidewall, a third conductive sidewall, and a fourth conductive sidewall (fig. 5); and one or both the first and second layers of the first dielectric material has a rectangular structure that extends from the first conductive sidewall to the second conductive sidewall opposite the first conductive sidewall, and also from the third conductive sidewall to the fourth conductive sidewall opposite the third conductive sidewall (figs. 5 and 9).
7. The cavity backed antenna assembly of claim 1, wherein: the first layer or second layer is completely within a portion of the cavity (fig. 4); the portion of the cavity has a maximum length, a maximum width, and a maximum cross-sectional area based on the maximum length and maximum width; and the first layer or second layer occupies only a portion of the maximum cross-sectional area (fig. 10).
8. The cavity backed antenna assembly of claim 7, wherein the first layer or second layer occupies 50% to 75% of the maximum cross-sectional area (fig. 10).
13. The cavity backed antenna assembly of claim 1, further comprising: a ground plane comprising conductive material (119), the ground plane having an opening therewithin; and an upper layer comprising a fourth dielectric material (120) extending through the opening (111) within the ground plane, the upper layer defining a ceiling of the cavity, wherein the upper layer is a radome of the cavity backed antenna assembly (fig. 1).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 3, 5, 9-12 and 14 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. The allowability of these claims is based on the claimed invention being limited to either of the embodiments shown in figures. 1F and 1F1.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Zink et al. (U.S. Patent No. 7,852,280) discloses an antenna comprising a crossed pair of center-fed end-loaded bent-dipole radiators which are structurally embedded into a properly loaded cavity.
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/Robert Karacsony/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845