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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Prosecution has been re-opened to better address the disputed limitation based on newly discovered art with an earlier effective filing date in the updated search.
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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 6, 8-10, 13-16, 18 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hammerschmidt et al. (Hammerschmidt, US PGPub 2018/0210079) in view of White et al. (White, US PGPub 2026/0172133).
Referring to Claim 1, Hammerschmidt teaches a management unit (Fig. 4 #140; [0020-0022] and [0110]); a plurality of distributed radar units (Fig. 4 #110-1, 110-2 and 110-3; [0110]); and a dielectric waveguide network (Fig. 4 #130-1, 130-2, 130-3 and 130-4; [0093] and [0111]) comprising a plurality of dielectric waveguides coupling the management unit to the plurality of distributed radar units; wherein the management unit is configured to generate a reference signal for synchronization of operations of the plurality of distributed radar units; and the dielectric waveguide network is configured to propagate a representation of the reference signal to each of the distributed radar units of the plurality of distributed radar units; [0115]; but does not explicitly disclose nor limit wherein the management unit is further configured to introduce time stamp information into the reference signal through modulation of the reference signal.
While the Examiner believes the last limitation is implicit from at least [0058] and [0084-0085] and the supporting references supplied in the previous office action, it is not explicitly taught.
However, White teaches a unit configured to introduce time stamp information into the reference signal through modulation of the reference signal; See Abstract and [0018].
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Hammerschmidt with the embedding of the timestamp as taught by White so as to predictably provide predictive and adaptive time synchronization to improve timing accuracy.
Referring to Claim 2, Hammerschmidt as modified by White teaches wherein the reference signal comprises one of a continuous waveform (CW) signal or a frequency modulated continuous waveform (FMCW) signal; [0084].
Referring to Claim 3, Hammerschmidt as modified by White teaches wherein the reference signal has a carrier frequency equal to a frequency of a radar illumination signal generated by at least one distributed radar unit based on the reference signal; [0115].
Referring to Claim 4, Hammerschmidt as modified by White teaches wherein each dielectric waveguide includes a dielectric core at least partially surrounded by at least one cladding layer; [0074].
Referring to Claim 6, Hammerschmidt as modified by White teaches wherein the at least one cladding layer is composed of at least one of a polymer, a metal, or a metal alloy; [0074].
Referring to Claim 8, Hammerschmidt as modified by White teaches wherein at least one distributed radar unit of the plurality of distributed radar units is configured to determine the time stamp information from the received representation of the reference signal and to control a timing of at least one radar operation of the distributed radar unit based on the time stamp information; see disclosure discussion of individual control of radar units.
Referring to Claim 9, Hammerschmidt as modified by White teaches wherein the dielectric waveguide network has a parallel star topology having a plurality of dielectric waveguides, each dielectric waveguide terminating at the management unit at one end and terminating at a corresponding distributed radar unit at an opposing end; See Fig. 4.
Referring to Claim 10, Hammerschmidt as modified by White teaches wherein the management unit comprises: a splitter having an input to receive the reference signal and a plurality of outputs, each output to provide a representation of the reference signal; and a plurality of waveguide interfaces, each waveguide interface coupled to a corresponding output of the plurality of outputs of the splitter and further coupled to a first end of a corresponding dielectric waveguide of the plurality of dielectric waveguides, the waveguide interface having at least one launcher for launching an analog signal corresponding to a received representation of the reference signal as an electromagnetic signal for propagation to a proximal end of the dielectric waveguide; Fig. 4 #144-3, 141-8 and 141-9; [0112].
Referring to Claim 13, Hammerschmidt as modified by White teaches wherein each distributed radar unit comprises: a waveguide interface coupled to a proximal end of a corresponding dielectric waveguide of the dielectric waveguide network and comprising at least one launcher and at least one amplifier to convert an electromagnetic signal received from the dielectric waveguide to a corresponding analog signal; and wherein the distributed radar unit is configured to control at least one radar operation of the distributed radar unit based on a representation of the reference signal generated from the analog signal; See Fig. 4 and [0084].
Referring to Claim 14, Hammerschmidt as modified by White teaches wherein: at least one distributed radar unit is configured to generate a digital data signal representative of results of a radar sensing operation of the distributed radar unit; the dielectric waveguide network is configured to propagate a representation of the digital data signal to the management unit; and the management unit is configured to control at least one operation of the distributed radar system based on the digital data signal; [0089].
Referring to Claim 15, Hammerschmidt as modified by White teaches a vehicle comprising an advanced driver assistance system having the distributed radar system of claim 1; Fig. 3 and 4 represent a bumper of a vehicle.
Referring to Claim 16, Hammerschmidt as modified by White teaches generating, at a management unit, a reference signal; transmitting a representation of the reference signal from the management unit to each of a plurality of distributed radar units via a dielectric waveguide network comprising a plurality of dielectric waveguides; and receiving, at each distributed radar unit, the representation of the reference signal from the dielectric waveguide network and controlling one or more radar operations of the distributed radar unit based on the received representation of the reference signal; modulating, at the management unit, the reference signal to introduce time stamp information into the reference signal; and controlling, at a distributed radar unit, a timing of at least one radar operation of the distributed radar unit based on time stamp information from a received representation of the reference signal; See the citations of Claim 1 and 8 above as this claim is method equivalent to the above system claim.
Referring to Claim 18, Hammerschmidt teaches wherein: the dielectric waveguide network has a parallel star topology having a plurality of dielectric waveguides, each dielectric waveguide terminating at the management unit at one end and terminating at a corresponding distributed radar unit at an opposing end; and transmitting a representation of the reference signal from the management unit to each of the distributed radar units comprises: generating a plurality of representations of the reference signal at the management unit; and launching, at a corresponding waveguide interface of a plurality of waveguide interfaces of the management unit, an electromagnetic signal representative of a corresponding representation of the reference signal into a corresponding dielectric waveguide of the plurality of waveguides using at least one launcher of the waveguide interface; see rejections of Claims 9 and 10 above.
Referring to Claim 20, Hammerschmidt as modified by White teaches generating, at a distributed radar unit, a digital data signal representative of results of a radar sensing operation of the distributed radar unit; propagating a representation of the digital data signal to the management unit via the dielectric waveguide network; and controlling, at the management unit, at least one operation of the distributed radar system based on a received representation of the digital data signal; see rejection of Claim 14 above.
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hammerschmidt in view of Huber (US PGPub 2021/0013578).
Referring to Claim 5, Hammerschmidt teaches the dielectric core, but does not explicitly disclose nor limit it is composed of at least one of: polytetrafluoroethylene, polyethylene, polypropylene, or polystyrene.
However, Huber teaches the dielectric core is composed of at least one of: polytetrafluoroethylene, polyethylene, polypropylene, or polystyrene; [0110-0111].
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Hammerschmidt with the materials as taught by Huber as using known materials that provide predictable results is well known in the art.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7, 11, 12, 17 and 19 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: Referring to Claims 11 and 19, both of these claims were indicated as being allowable if written in independent form in the previous office action, Applicant has amended these claims into independent form and the claims are now in condition for allowance.
Claims 7, 12 and 17 have been amended to depend on Claims 11 and 19 and are allowed for the same reasons.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WHITNEY T MOORE whose telephone number is (571)270-3338. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday from 7am-4pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jack Keith can be reached at (571) 272-6878. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WHITNEY MOORE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3646
Prosecution Insights