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
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.
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.
Claims 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Scott et al. (US 20200028472 A1, cited by the applicant) in view of Kim et al. (US 20220337201 A1), hereafter referred to as “Scott” and “Kim”, respectively.
Regarding claims 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6, in the embodiment of Fig. 7, Scott discloses:
A Doherty amplifier (Fig. 7, Doherty amplifier system 10), comprising:
a carrier amplifier (main amplifier 12, main amplifier is commonly known in the art as a carrier amplifier) configured to amplify a radio frequency signal;
a peak amplifier (peaking amplifier 18 and peaking driver amplifier 42 form the peak amplifier) configured to amplify the radio frequency signal, and comprising a driver stage peak amplifier (peaking driver amplifier 42) and a power stage peak amplifier (peaking amplifier 18) configured to receive an output of the driver stage peak amplifier (as shown in Fig. 7);
a drive level detection circuit (saturation detector 24) configured to detect a drive level of the carrier amplifier (Fig. 8A, saturation detector 24, paragraph [0059] lines 10-14, a signal level is detected at the detector input 26);
a control circuit (Figs. 2 and 7, detector control outputs 28 and 60, connected to driver 42) configured to output a signal that sets a bias of the driver stage peak amplifier based on a drive level signal indicating the drive level detected by the drive level detection circuit, wherein the control circuit is further configured to output a control signal that controls a state of the power stage peak amplifier (Fig. 2, paragraph [0045], saturation detector 24 generates a control signal with a current and/or voltage level that activates the peaking amplifier 18 by increasing the gain of the peaking driver amplifier 42 as per claim 4), wherein the power stage peak amplifier is controlled to be in the operating state or in a non-operating state by the control signal (paragraph [0050]-[0051], saturation detector 24 generates control signal that can activate and deactivate peaking amplifier 18 by reducing its bias point per claim 5); and
a current or a voltage in accordance with an operating state of the driver stage peak amplifier (Fig. 2, paragraph [0045], saturation detector generates a control signal with a current and/or voltage level that activates or deactivates the peaking amplifier 18 by increasing or reducing the gain of the peaking driver amplifier 42), and a radio frequency signal outputted from the driver stage peak amplifier (RFin shown in Fig. 7 to output to peak input 21, per paragraph [0042], per claim 2), and a bias circuit (bias circuitry 48) configured to set a bias of the power stage peak amplifier (shown to be connected to peaking amplifier 18, per claim 6),
wherein an operating state of the power stage peak amplifier is controlled based on the current or the voltage generated by the generation circuit in accordance with the operating state of the driver stage peak amplifier (per paragraph [0045]).
However, Scott is silent in teaching a generation circuit comprising a detection circuit configured to generate a detection current or detection voltage, and comprising a current monitor circuit configured to generate a monitor current in accordance with a supply current to the driver stage peak amplifier, wherein the generation circuit further comprises a bias of the power stage peak amplifier based on the monitor current.
Kim teaches:
a generation circuit comprising a detection circuit (Fig. 11, power detector 1131) and a current monitor circuit (Figs. 13A and 14, monitoring circuit 1321) configured to generate a monitor current in accordance with a supply current (Fig. 14, bias current Ibatt from externally supplied voltage Vbatt) to the driver stage peak amplifier (paragraph [0136] lines 5-9, monitoring circuit 1321 may output a damage flag indicating whether the second amplifier 721 is damaged, the monitor circuit may be applied other power amplifiers (e.g. power amplifier 1123 of Fig. 11) per paragraph [0143]), wherein the generation circuit further comprises a bias circuit (Fig. 13A, adaptive bias control circuit 722) configured to set a bias of the power stage peak amplifier based on the monitor current (paragraph [0138], the adaptive bias control circuit 722 may be controlled by receiving OCP (Over Current Protection) alarm from protection circuit 1322).
It would have been obvious in view of the references, taken as a whole, to have modified the amplifier in Scott by adding a generation circuit comprising a detection circuit and a current monitor circuit as taught by Kim (Figs. 11 and 13A) to determine whether the power amplifier is normally operated or damaged (paragraph [0136] lines 5-7), especially in the saturation detector as taught by Scott already performs the functions of the claimed invention, thereby suggesting the obviousness of such a modification. Furthermore, it would be obvious for the bias circuit as taught by Scott to be configured to set a bias of the power stage peak amplifier based on the monitor current as taught by Kim (paragraph [0138]), as it is well known in the art to use a bias to control to operate an amplifier, thereby suggesting the obviousness of such a configuration.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Scott et al. (US 20200028472 A1), cited by the applicant, in view of Kim et al. (US 20220337201 A1) and in further view of Ozard (US 9742365 B1), hereafter referred to as “Scott”, “Kim”, and “Ozard”, respectively.
Regarding claim 3, in the embodiment of Fig. 7, Scott teaches:
the control circuit is configured to:
set a bias point of the driver stage peak amplifier to be lower than a bias point of the carrier amplifier when an input signal is not present or is low,
raise the bias point of the driver stage peak amplifier in a drive level to be higher than a back off level,
set the bias point of the driver stage peak amplifier in a saturation state to be higher than the bias point when the input signal is not present or low (paragraph [0050]-[0051], saturation detector 24 generates control signal that can activate and deactivate peaking amplifier 18 by increasing or reducing its bias point when the saturation detector detects or does not detect saturation).
However, Scott is silent in teaching setting the bias point of the driver stage peak amplifier to operate the driver stage peak amplifier in class AB.
Ozard teaches:
setting the bias point of the driver stage peak amplifier to operate the driver stage peak amplifier in class AB (Figs. 2, 4, and 5, driver amplifiers 212b and 408, are shown as a class-AB amplifier of peaking amplifier 404, factors for a biasing point in the Class-AB continuum are further mentioned in column 4 lines 36-48).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious in view of the references, taken as a whole, to have modified the driver stage peak amplifier as taught by Scott (42) to be a Class-AB amplifier, as taught by Ozard (Figs. 2, 4, and 5), especially since the generic nature of the driver stage peak amplifier would have suggested that any equivalent peak amplifier configuration, such as the peak amplifier configuration in Ozard, would have been usable therewith, thereby suggesting the obviousness of such a modification.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 7 is 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 7:
the cited prior art of record, Scott et al. (US 20200028472 A1), either singly or in proper combination, does not teach or make obvious, along with the other claimed features, “the current monitor circuit comprises a current mirror circuit configured to output a current obtained by duplicating a current of the driver stage peak amplifier, and wherein the bias circuit is configured to set the bias of the power stage peak amplifier based on the current duplicated by the current mirror circuit”.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MALANE LIENG whose telephone number is (571)272-5739. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 6:30 - 4:00 CST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Andrea Baltzell can be reached at (571) 272-5918. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Malane Lieng/Examiner, Art Unit 2843
/ANDREA LINDGREN BALTZELL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2843
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