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.
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Van Sinderen et al. (US 2014/0340151 A1 herein van Sinderen), and further in view of Brunn et al. (US 2008/0175307 A1 herein Brunn).
Regarding claim 1, van Sinderen teaches a receiver circuit (read as FM receiver) (van Sinderen – [0073], [0078]) comprising:
a low noise transconductance amplifier (LNTA) stage (read as Low Noise Transconductance Amplifier with current amplification; LNTA amplifies the RF signal in the current domain and directly delivers a signal current into the mixer) (van Sinderen – Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4, and [0009]-[0010]);
a down-conversion mixer stage (read as down converter using a low noise amplifier the output of which is provided to a passive mixer; the LNTA output drives a passive mixer requiring high linearity and low noise) (van Sinderen – Figure 1, [0006], [0075], and [0078]).
However, van Sinderen fails to teach a post-mixer filter; and a gain stage, wherein supply currents of the post-mixer filter and the gain stage are combined and re-used to supply the LNTA stage.
In the related art, Brunn teaches a post-mixer filter (read as notch filter) (Brunn – [0020], [0149], and [0199]); and a gain stage, wherein supply currents of the post-mixer filter and the gain stage are combined and re-used to supply the LNTA stage (read as output stage which generates a feedback current which is a scaled replica of the output current of the amplifier, wherein the feedback current is provided to the amplifier input; LNA 124 may include a transconductance amplifier; gain provided by the arrangement in Figure 17F is based on a product of gains of the LNA 124, 128, and 192) (Brunn – Figure 17F, [0017], [0146], and [0200]-[0201]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to incorporate the teachings of Brunn into the teachings of van Sinderen for the purpose of providing filters that function as notch filters at low frequencies and the notch filters may be used to attenuate the blockers at different known frequencies.
Regarding claim 2 as applied to claim 1, van Sinderen as modified by Brunn further teaches wherein the down-conversion mixer stage is a passive mixer (read as down converter using a low noise amplifier the output of which is provided to a passive mixer; the LNTA output drives a passive mixer requiring high linearity and low noise) (van Sinderen – Figure 1, [0006], [0075], [0078]).
Regarding claim 3 as applied to claim 1, van Sinderen as modified by Brunn further teaches wherein the post-mixer filter is a current-mode notch filter (read as notch filters) (Brunn – [0020], [0149], [0184], and [0199]).
Regarding claim 4 as applied to claim 3, van Sinderen as modified by Brunn further teaches wherein the current-mode notch filter is implemented using an operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) combined with an RC circuit to create a low-impedance node at an output of the down-conversion mixer stage for frequencies outside a band of operation (read as operation transconductance amplifier (OTA)) (Brunn – [0160]).
Regarding claim 5 as applied to claim 3, van Sinderen as modified by Brunn further teaches wherein the current-mode notch filter is implemented using a current-reuse current-mode notch filter topology (read as notch filters) (Brunn – [0020], [0149], [0184], and [0199]).
Regarding claim 6 as applied to claim 5, van Sinderen as modified by Brunn further teaches wherein half of the current consumed by the gain stage is redirected to power the current-reuse current-mode notch filter (read as LNA 124 may include a transconductance amplifier; gain provided by the arrangement in Figure 17F is based on a product of gains of the LNA 124, 128, and 192) (Brunn – Figure 17F, [0146], [0200]-[0201]).
Regarding claim 7 as applied to claim 6, van Sinderen as modified by Brunn further teaches wherein a noise figure (NF) performance of the receiver circuit is primarily influenced by the LNTA, and various LNTA topologies can be employed (read as compared to gain reduction effected with a passive input attenuator, the gain reduction effected through negative feedback delivers a more favourable Noise Figure) (van Sinderen – [0054], and [0076]).
Regarding claim 8 as applied to claim 7, van Sinderen as modified by Brunn further teaches wherein a capacitive cross-coupled common-gate (CCC-CG) LNTA topology is utilized to provide wideband RF input matching (read as may be needed for correct input matching when gain reduction is applied; each inverter stage is implemented by a PMOS and NMOS transistor with common gate drive signals) (van Sinderen – Figure 7, and [0063]).
Regarding claim 9 as applied to claim 1, van Sinderen as modified by Brunn further teaches wherein a supply voltage of the receiver circuit can be any value (read as supply voltage vdd2) (van Sinderen – [0064]-[0065]).
Regarding claim 10 as applied to claim 9, van Sinderen as modified by Brunn further teaches wherein the supply voltage is exemplarily 1.2V (read as supply voltage vdd2) (van Sinderen – [0064]-[0065]).
Regarding claim 11, van Sinderen teaches a method for mitigating out-of-band blockers in a receiver circuit (read as FM receiver) (van Sinderen – [0073], [0078]), comprising:
providing a low noise transconductance amplifier (LNTA) stage (read as Low Noise Transconductance Amplifier with current amplification; LNTA amplifies the RF signal in the current domain and directly delivers a signal current into the mixer) (van Sinderen – Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4, and [0009]-[0010]);
down-converting an input signal in a passive mixer stage (read as down converter using a low noise amplifier the output of which is provided to a passive mixer; the LNTA output drives a passive mixer requiring high linearity and low noise) (van Sinderen – Figure 1, [0006], [0075], and [0078]).
However, van Sinderen fails to teach filtering the down-converted signal in a current-mode notch filter post-mixer; amplifying the filtered signal in a gain stage; and re-using a combined supply current of the current-mode notch filter and the gain stage to supply the LNTA stage.
In the related art, Brunn teaches filtering the down-converted signal in a current-mode notch filter post-mixer (read as notch filter) (Brunn – [0020], [0149], and [0199]); amplifying the filtered signal in a gain stage; and re-using a combined supply current of the current-mode notch filter and the gain stage to supply the LNTA stage (read as output stage which generates a feedback current which is a scaled replica of the output current of the amplifier, wherein the feedback current is provided to the amplifier input; LNA 124 may include a transconductance amplifier; gain provided by the arrangement in Figure 17F is based on a product of gains of the LNA 124, 128, and 192) (Brunn – Figure 17F, [0017], [0146], and [0200]-[0201]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to incorporate the teachings of Brunn into the teachings of van Sinderen for the purpose of providing filters that function as notch filters at low frequencies and the notch filters may be used to attenuate the blockers at different known frequencies.
Regarding claim 12 as applied to claim 11, van Sinderen as modified by Brunn further teaches wherein the current-mode notch filter is implemented using an operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) combined with an RC circuit (read as operation transconductance amplifier (OTA)) (Brunn – [0160]).
Regarding claim 13 as applied to claim 11, van Sinderen as modified by Brunn further teaches wherein the current-mode notch filter is implemented using a current-reuse current-mode notch filter topology (read as notch filters) (Brunn – [0020], [0149], [0184], and [0199]).
Regarding claim 14 as applied to claim 13, van Sinderen as modified by Brunn further teaches wherein half of the current consumed by the gain stage is redirected to power the current-reuse current-mode notch filter (read as LNA 124 may include a transconductance amplifier; gain provided by the arrangement in Figure 17F is based on a product of gains of the LNA 124, 128, and 192) (Brunn – Figure 17F, [0146], [0200]-[0201]).
Regarding claim 15 as applied to claim 11, van Sinderen as modified by Brunn further teaches further comprising employing a capacitive cross-coupled common-gate (CCC-CG) LNTA topology for the LNTA stage to provide wideband RF input matching (read as may be needed for correct input matching when gain reduction is applied; each inverter stage is implemented by a PMOS and NMOS transistor with common gate drive signals) (van Sinderen – Figure 7, [0053], and [0063]).
Regarding claim 16, van Sinderen teaches a receiver circuit for mitigating out-of-band blockers (read as FM receiver) (van Sinderen – [0073], [0078]), comprising:
means for low noise amplification (read as Low Noise Transconductance Amplifier with current amplification; LNTA amplifies the RF signal in the current domain and directly delivers a signal current into the mixer) (van Sinderen – Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4, and [0009]-[0010]);
means for down-converting an input signal (read as down converter using a low noise amplifier the output of which is provided to a passive mixer; the LNTA output drives a passive mixer requiring high linearity and low noise) (van Sinderen – Figure 1, [0006], [0075], and [0078]).
However, van Sinderen fails to teach means for filtering the down-converted signal using a current-mode notch filter; means for amplifying the filtered signal; and means for re-using a combined supply current of the means for filtering and the means for amplifying to supply the low noise amplification means.
In the related art, Brunn teaches means for filtering the down-converted signal using a current-mode notch filter (read as notch filter) (Brunn – [0020], [0149], and [0199]); means for amplifying the filtered signal; and means for re-using a combined supply current of the means for filtering and the means for amplifying to supply the low noise amplification means (read as output stage which generates a feedback current which is a scaled replica of the output current of the amplifier, wherein the feedback current is provided to the amplifier input; LNA 124 may include a transconductance amplifier; gain provided by the arrangement in Figure 17F is based on a product of gains of the LNA 124, 128, and 192) (Brunn – Figure 17F, [0017], [0146], and [0200]-[0201]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to incorporate the teachings of Brunn into the teachings of van Sinderen for the purpose of providing filters that function as notch filters at low frequencies and the notch filters may be used to attenuate the blockers at different known frequencies.
Regarding claim 17 as applied to claim 16, van Sinderen as modified by Brunn further teaches wherein the means for down-converting the input signal is a passive mixer (read as down converter using a low noise amplifier the output of which is provided to a passive mixer; the LNTA output drives a passive mixer requiring high linearity and low noise) (van Sinderen – Figure 1, [0006], [0075], [0078]).
Regarding claim 18 as applied to claim 16, van Sinderen as modified by Brunn further teaches wherein the means for filtering the down-converted signal is a current-reuse current-mode notch filter (read as notch filters) (Brunn – [0020], [0149], [0184], and [0199]).
Regarding claim 19 as applied to claim 18, van Sinderen as modified by Brunn further teaches wherein the current-reuse current-mode notch filter is powered by redirecting half of the current consumed by the means for amplifying (read as notch filters) (Brunn – [0020], [0149], [0184], and [0199]).
Regarding claim 20 as applied to claim 16, van Sinderen as modified by Brunn further teaches wherein the means for low noise amplification is implemented using a capacitive cross-coupled common-gate (CCC-CG) LNTA topology (read as each inverter stage is implemented by a PMOS and NMOS transistor with common gate drive signals) (van Sinderen – Figure 7, and [0063]).
Conclusion
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/APRIL G GONZALES/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2648