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 .
2. Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
3. 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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
4. 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.
5. Claims 1-5, 9, 12-16 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hong et al US 9392547 B2 in view of Ko EP 0905914 A2.
6. Consider claim 1. An antenna module (fig 7), comprising: a primary transceiving unit (790), wherein the primary transceiving unit (790) comprises a first antenna (shown but not labeled); a diversity receiving unit, wherein the diversity receiving unit (710, 730) comprises a second antenna (754); Hong uses weights to combine the received signals , but fails to teach an interference cancellation unit while transmitting which comprises a signal output unit, the signal output unit is configured to transmit a cancellation signal to the second antenna, the cancellation signal is configured to cancel a spatially-coupled interference signal received by the second antenna, and the spatially-coupled interference signal is a transmission signal entering the second antenna from the first antenna through spatial coupling. However, Ko teaches such in his transceiver (see interference canceller 27 connected between transmitting antenna 21 and receiving antenna 22). The interference cancelling unit has a signal output unit T’(t) which transmits (adds) a cancellation signal (0028) to the second antenna (32) which cancels the interference from the special coupled antennas (31, 32) as claimed. It would have been obvious, before the effective date, to add an interference canceller in Hong as taught by Ko, to avoid signal leakage while transmitting into the diversity receiver making the overall quality improve.
7. Regarding claim 2. Ko teaches wherein the interference cancellation unit (fig 5) further comprises an initial interference signal acquisition unit (reads on input to delay 28), and the signal output unit T’(t) comprises a signal adjustment unit (29, 30), wherein: one end of the signal adjustment unit is connected to the initial interference signal acquisition unit (fig 5), and the other end of the signal adjustment unit is configured to transmit the cancellation signal to the second antenna through 34 to antenna 32); and the initial interference signal acquisition unit is configured to acquire an initial interference signal, and the signal adjustment unit is configured to adjust the initial interference signal, so as to generate and output the cancellation signal (0028).
8. Claims 12 and 13 are rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claims 1 and 2.
9. Regarding claim 3. Ko teaches (fig 4) wherein the initial interference signal acquisition unit comprises a first coupler (reads on power divider 25), one end of the first coupler (25) is coupled to the first antenna (21), and the other end of the first coupler is connected to the signal adjustment unit (27). Regarding claim 14, Both Ko and Hong are electronic devices.
10. Regarding claim 4. Ko teaches wherein the signal output unit further comprises a second coupler, one end of the second coupler is coupled to the second antenna, and the other end of the second coupler is connected to the signal adjustment unit. Regarding claim 15, Both Ko and Hong are electronic devices.
12. Regarding claim 5. Ko teaches (fig 5) wherein the signal adjustment unit comprises an attenuator (29) and a phase shifter (30), which are mutually connected. Regarding claim 16, Both Ko and Hong are electronic devices.
13. Regarding claim 9. Neither Hong or Kong explicitly state wherein impedance values of the first antenna and the second antenna are greater than 200 Ohm. However, Hong discusses optimal impedance matching for his antennas (col 10, lines 1-10) for optimal performance. It would have been obvious, before the effective date to selected the values for the antennas to be greater than 200 ohm to optimize the system based on its intended use. Regarding claim 20, Both Ko and Hong are electronic devices.
14. Claims 10 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hong et al US 9392547 B2 in view of Ko EP 0905914 A2 further in view of Examiner’s Official Notice.
15. Regarding claim 10. Although Hong is silent to whether it’s a 4G or 5G system, given that Hong’s system is a cellular CDMA system and give the date of the patent, its inherent that the primary transceiving unit comprises a 4th generation (4G) primary transceiving unit, the first antenna of the 4G primary transceiving unit is a 4G low-frequency antenna. Adding a first antenna of the primary transceiving unit to be a 5G low-frequency antenna, which is well known in the art and the examiner takes Official Notice of such, would have been an obvious substitution of one well known antenna for more update well known version in order to make it compatible with today’s networks.
16. Regarding claim 11. Although Hong and Ko are both silent as to the specific type of antenna’s used, a metal-bezeled antenna, a microstrip disk antenna (MDA), and a flexible printed circuit (FPC) antenna are well known in the art, and the examiner takes Official Notice of such, and would have been obvious to arrange and pick from the list above for either the first or second antenna’s depending on intended usage.
17. Claims 6-8 and 17-19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
18. Regarding claim 6. The prior art of record does not teach or make obvious wherein the interference cancellation unit further comprises a first processing module, and the first processing module is connected to the attenuator and the phase shifter; and the first processing module is configured to determine a first parameter and a second parameter corresponding to power of the transmission signal according to a preset corresponding relation between the power and a working parameter, adjust a working parameter of the attenuator according to the first parameter, and adjust a working parameter of the phase shifter according to the second parameter. Claim 17 is objected to since it depends upon claim 6.
19. Regarding claim 7. The prior art of record does not teach or make obvious wherein the interference cancellation unit further comprises a second processing module, and the second processing module is connected to the second antenna, the attenuator, and the phase shifter; and the second processing module is configured to determine a third parameter and a fourth parameter according to the spatially-coupled interference signal received by the second antenna, adjust a working parameter of the attenuator according to the third parameter, and adjust a working parameter of the phase shifter according to the fourth parameter. Claim 18 is objected to since it depends upon claim 7.
20. Regarding claim 8. The prior art of record does not teach or make obvious wherein the diversity receiving unit further comprises a low-noise amplifier and a matching circuit, an input end of the low-noise amplifier is connected to the second antenna, and an output end of the low-noise amplifier is connected to the matching circuit; impedance values of the first antenna and the second antenna are positioned in a first quadrant of a Smith chart, and spaced from an edge position of the Smith chart by a distance smaller than a first preset threshold; and a maximum gain input impedance value and an optimal input noise coefficient value of the low-noise amplifier are positioned in a fourth quadrant of the Smith chart, and spaced from an edge position of the Smith chart by a distance smaller than a second preset threshold. Dependent claim 19 is objected since it depends on claim 8.
21. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Liu US 20210211107 A1 teaches A front-end system can include a power amplifier in a transmit path. Power amplifiers can be included in front-end systems in a wide variety of communications devices to amplify an RF signal for transmission. An RF signal amplified by a power amplifier can be transmitted via an antenna. Example communications devices having power amplifiers include, but are not limited to, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, mobile phones, tablets, base stations, network access points, laptops, computers, and televisions. As an example, in mobile phones that communicate using a cellular standard, a wireless local area network (WLAN) standard, and/or any other suitable communication standard, a power amplifier can be used to amplify the RF signal. An output matching circuit can be included at the output of a power amplifier. The output matching circuit can be used to increase power transfer and/or reduce reflections of the amplified RF signal generated by the power amplifier.
Kim et al US 20160119110 A1 teaches an apparatus (fig 3) which includes a transmission signal divider for dividing and transmitting a received signal to a transmission antenna and an attenuator, an attenuator for applying a predetermined attenuation factor to the transmitted signal divided to the attenuator, a phase shifter for phase-shifting the signal to which the attenuation factor is applied by a predetermined phase, and a time delayer for time-delaying the phase-shifted signal by a predetermined time.
Massen US 20120112852 A1 teaches a process for obtaining a first operational metric for a transmitter of a communication device, determining a range of impedances based on the first operational metric where the range of impedances is associated with an acceptable level of performance for the communication device, obtaining a second operational metric for the transmitter, determining a target impedance within the range of impedances based on the second operational metric, and tuning a first impedance matching network based on the target impedance, where the first impedance matching network is coupled with a first antenna of the communication device, and where the tuning is based on adjusting a first variable component of the first impedance matching network.
21. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CURTIS A KUNTZ whose telephone number is (571)272-7499. The examiner can normally be reached on M-Th from 530am to 330pm and Fri from 530am to 10am.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew D Anderson, can be reached at telephone number 5712724177. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CURTIS A KUNTZ/Primary examiner, Art Unit 2646