DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 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.
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 of this title, 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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mavridou, M., Feresidis, A.P., Gardner, P. and Hall, P.S., 2014. Tunable millimetre‐wave phase shifting surfaces using piezoelectric actuators. IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, 8(11), pp.829-834. (Mavridou), in view of Vassos, E., Churm, J. and Feresidis, A., 2020. Ultra-low-loss tunable piezoelectric-actuated metasurfaces achieving 360° or 180° dynamic phase shift at millimeter-waves. Scientific Reports, 10(1), p.15679. (Vassos) and in further view of Tsilipakos, O., Tasolamprou, A.C., Pitilakis, A., Liu, F., Wang, X., Mirmoosa, M.S., Tzarouchis, D.C., Abadal, S., Taghvaee, H., Liaskos, C. and Tsioliaridou, A., 2020. Toward intelligent metasurfaces: the progress from globally tunable metasurfaces to software‐defined metasurfaces with an embedded network of controllers. Advanced optical materials, 8(17), p.2000783 (Tsilipakos) and Squeeze-Film Damping of Perforated Plates, Created in COMSOL Multiphysics 5.6 Nov. 11, 2020 (COMSOL).
Regarding Claims 1, 11 and 18:
A panel comprising: a housing; and a plurality of unit cells arranged in a grid pattern, the plurality of unit cells including: a substrate; a metallic layer that includes one or more metallic elements for each of the unit cells, the metallic layer formed on a first surface of the substrate; a moveable metallic ground plane separated from a second surface of the substrate by an air cavity positioned between the moveable metallic ground plane and the second surface of the substrate; and a plurality of piezoelectric actuators attached to the moveable metallic ground plane and configured to increase or decrease a thickness of the air cavity by raising or lowering the moveable metallic ground plane, wherein increasing or decreasing the thickness of the air cavity causes the panel to steer an electromagnetic beam that is directed toward the panel (Mavridou: 2., and Fig. 1, a housing that contains a tunable metasurface; the metasurface comprises a dielectric substance with a square loop elements array (i.e., multiple unit cells with each unit cell is single square loop element, a ground plane, and piezoelectric actuators to adjust the air cavity thickness dynamically as detailed in 3.; the phase shifting is achieved through changing thickness of the air cavity, where Vassos further provides an array with different element or unit cell patterns, e.g., in Figs. 7 and 11).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to modify Mavridou with various unit-cell patterns as further taught by Vassos. The advantage of doing so is to enable Ultra‑low‑loss tunable piezoelectric‑actuated metasurfaces achieving 360°or 180° dynamic phase shift at millimeter‑waves (Vassos: Abstract).
Mavridou does not teach explicitly on local tunability at unit-cell level rather only globally. However, Tsilipakos teaches (Tsilipakos: e.g., 3. and 5., further illustrates an implementation example in Fig. 9).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to modify Mavridou with local tunability at unit-cell level rather only globally as further taught by Tsilipakos. The advantage of doing so is to enable metasurfaces toward unprecedented levels of functionality by harnessing the opportunities offered by their software interface as well as their inter- and intranetwork connectivity and establish them in real-world applications (Tsilipakos: Abstract).
Mavridou does not teach explicitly on air dumping configuration in squeezing motion. However COMSOL teaches (COMSOL: e.g. Intro: model a perforated plate over a cavity, using “perforations” features to model holes that allow gas (air) to escape during motion to relieve cavity pressure).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to modify Mavridou with air dumping configuration in squeezing motion as further taught by COMSOL. The advantage of doing so is to enable a model to predict and estimate damping coefficients of perforated plates (COMSOL: Intro).
Regarding Claims 2 and 16, Mavridou as modified further teaches:
The panel of claim 1, further comprising: a housing that comprises at least a bottom surface and two side surfaces; the two side surfaces including first anchor portions that are configured to anchor the substrate to the housing; the plurality of piezoelectric actuators and the moveable metallic ground plane being positioned between the substrate and the bottom surface of the housing; and the housing including second anchor portions that attach the moveable metallic ground plane to the plurality of piezoelectric actuators (Mavridou: Fig. 1).
Regarding Claims 3 and 12, Mavridou as modified further teaches:
The panel of claim 2, wherein the housing comprises a plurality of perforations that are configured to allow air that is interior to the housing to escape through the perforations when the plurality of piezoelectric actuators move the moveable metallic ground plane (COMSOL: e.g. Intro: model a perforated plate over a cavity, using “perforations” features to model holes that allow gas (air) to escape during motion to relieve cavity pressure).
Regarding Claim 4, Mavridou as modified further teaches:
The panel of claim 3, wherein the perforations are positioned on one or more of the bottom surface of housing, one or both of the side surfaces of the housing, or the substrate (COMSOL: e.g. Intro: model a perforated plate over a cavity, using “perforations” features to model holes that allow gas (air) to escape during motion to relieve cavity pressure).
Regarding Claims 5, 15 and 19, Mavridou as modified further teaches:
The panel of claim 2, wherein the housing further includes control terminals that extend from the bottom surface of the housing and that are configured to provide a DC voltage to the piezoelectric actuators (Mavridou: Fig. 1, 3. and Fig. 7, illustrate a piezoelectric actuator with DC voltage).
Regarding Claim 6, Mavridou as modified further teaches:
The panel of claim 2, wherein the housing is made of a transparent RF plastic (Mavridou: Fig. 1).
Regarding Claims 7 and 13, Mavridou as modified further teaches:
The panel of claim 2, wherein the plurality of piezoelectric actuators are positioned at corners of the housing (Mavridou: Fig. 1).
Regarding Claim 8, Mavridou as modified further teaches:
The panel of claim 1, wherein the one or more metallic elements are arranged in a grid-like array (Mavridou: Fig. 1, and Vassos: Fig. 7).
Regarding Claims 9 and 14, Mavridou as modified further teaches:
The panel of claim 1, wherein the substrate comprises a dielectric material (Mavridou: Fig. 1).
Regarding Claims 10 and 17, Mavridou as modified further teaches:
The panel of claim 1, wherein the one or more metallic elements formed on the first surface of the substrate have a shape that is resonant with an incident signal or electromagnetic wave incident on the panel (Vassos: Fig. 3; Mavridou: Abstract).
Regarding Claim 20, Mavridou as modified further teaches:
The method of claim 18, wherein the thickness of the air cavity under the unit cells is changed by controlling each of the piezoelectric actuators to provide equal displacement of the moveable metallic ground plane (Mavridou: Fig. 1, dual piezoelectric actuators).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHITONG CHEN whose telephone number is (571) 270-1936. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9:30am - 5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Yuwen Pan can be reached on 571-272-7855. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ZHITONG CHEN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2649