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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-20 are currently pending and have been examined.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 05/07/2024 and 10/16/2024 have been considered by the examiner and initialed copies of the IDS are hereby attached.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 5 and 15-20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 5 recites the limitation "the found result". There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. This limitation should say “a found result”.
Claim 15 recites the limitation "converting the first reception signal and the second reception signal into first data and second data;”. This limitation is indefinite as it is unclear whether the first receptions signal is converted into the first data or the second data and whether the second reception signal is converted into the first data or second data. Perhaps the claim should recite, “converting the first reception signal into first data and converting the second reception signal into second data;”.
Claim 18 recites the limitation "the found result". There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. This limitation should say “a found result”.
Dependent claims 16-20 are also rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) due to their dependency on a claim rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-10,14 and 16-20 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include 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:
In reference to claims 2-10 and 16-20, the prior arts made of record individually or in any combination, failed to teach, render obvious, or fairly suggest to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing the combination of the claimed features of claims 2-10 and 16-20.
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1,11-13 and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LEE et al. (US 20240319334 A1), hereinafter LEE, in view of Chen (US 20180302111 A1), hereinafter Chen.
Regarding claim 1, LEE discloses [Note: what LEE fails to clearly disclose is strikethrough]
A radar device (see Fig. 1, further see paragraph 0055, “FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a schematic configuration of a radar device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.”) comprising:
a transmission circuit configured to emit a first transmission signal and a second transmission signal (see paragraph 0062, “As described above, the radar device according to the present embodiment may be a MIMO radar device that transmits a plurality of transmission signals simultaneously or in time division through multiple transmission antennas and receives the reception signals through multiple receiving antennas.”, further see paragraph 0076, “a first reception signal corresponding to a first transmission signal transmitted from the first transmission antenna and a phase of a second reception signal corresponding to a second transmission signal from the second transmission antenna”); and
a reception circuit configured to receive a first reception signal associated with the first transmission signal and a second reception signal associated with the second transmission signal (see paragraph 0079, “Specifically, a phase error compensation device 300 according to the present embodiment may determine, for each first distance to a moving target selected among the plurality of moving objects, a first phase error between a phase of a first reception signal corresponding to a first transmission signal transmitted from the first transmission antenna and a phase of a second reception signal corresponding to a second transmission signal from the second transmission antenna, and may generate a lookup table for phase compensation based on the first phase error for each first distance.”), to convert the first reception signal into first data, and to convert the second reception signal into second data (see paragraph 0061, “The receiver included in the transceiver 200 may include a low noise amplifier (LNA) which low-noise-amplifies a reflected signal received through the receiving antenna, a mixer which mixes the low-noise-amplified reception signal, an amplifier which amplifies the mixed reception signal, and a converter (analog-to-digital converter (ADC)) which digitally converts the amplified reception signal to generate reception data.”, where each received signal is converted using an ADC (i.e. digitized) which is indeed converting the first reception signal into first data, and to convert the second reception signal into second data),
wherein the reception circuit synchronizes a phase of the second reception signal with a phase of the first reception signal based on the first data and the second data and outputs a first compensation signal (see paragraph 0085, “The first determiner 310 of the phase error compensation device 300 may determine, for each first distance to a moving target selected among the plurality of moving objects, a first phase error between a phase of a first reception signal corresponding to a first transmission signal transmitted from the first transmission antenna and a phase of a second reception signal corresponding to a second transmission signal from the second transmission antenna.”), and
wherein the reception circuit includes:
a pre-processing circuit configured to generate first encoding data based on the first data, to generate second encoding data based on the second data, and to generate pre-processed data based on the first encoding data and the second encoding data (see paragraph 0100, “The first processor may perform frequency conversion after data-buffering acquired transmission data and reception data in a unit sample size that is processable per cycle. The frequency conversion performed by the above-described first processor may be implemented using a Fourier transform such as a fast Fourier transform (FFT).”, where the FFT conversion using the digitized data (i.e. data coming out of the ADC) is indeed “encoding data”; NOTE: the ADC conversion and the FFT conversion of the received signals is “pre-processing” of the data);
a phase compensation circuit configured to generate compensation data based on the pre-processed data and a phase compensation table (see paragraph 0094, “The storage unit 340 of the phase error compensation device 300 may store the first phase error for each first distance and the second phase error for each second distance. Additionally, the storage unit 340 may additionally store the generated lookup table LUT for the phase error compensation. “, further see paragraph 0097, “Meanwhile, the signal processor 400 of the radar device according to the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 may accurately acquire target information by compensating for the phase based on the lookup table generated by the phase error compensation device. Since the lookup table includes the phase error values ϕ.sub.r,err or corresponding phase compensation values corresponding to distance values up to the far-field distance, the signal processor 400 may accurately acquire target information using the lookup table even up to the far-field distance.”); and
Chen discloses,
a digital-to-analog converter configured to output the first compensation signal being an analog signal, based on the compensation data (see Fig. 6 where phase correction is performed at 620 and the output of phase correction (i.e. first compensation signal) is then input into a DAC to convert the signal into an analog signal, further see paragraph 0078, “The first and second I/Q baseband input signals 631, 632 may be subjected to error correction in the digital domain in error correction circuit 620 and then converted into the analog domain by a pair of digital-to-analog converters (DACs) 680.”).
It would have been obvious to someone with ordinary skill in the art prior to the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the features as disclosed by Chen into the invention of LEE. Both references are considered analogous arts to the claimed invention as they both disclose radar systems where received signals are phase synchronized and corrected. The combination would be obvious with a reasonable expectation of success in order to enhance data detection by improving distributed-radar coherence.
Regarding claim 11, LEE further discloses
The radar device of claim 1, wherein the phase compensation table is stored in a read only memory (ROM) included in the reception circuit (see paragraph 0251, “The memory 1520 and the storage 1530 may include various types of volatile/nonvolatile storage media. For example, the memory may include a read-only memory (ROM) 1524 and a random access memory (RAM) 1525.”, where all device data would be stored in this memory and therefore the compensation table is stored in the ROM).
Regarding claim 12, LEE further discloses
The radar device of claim 1, wherein the second reception signal is one of a pulse signal, a continuous wave signal, and a frequency modulation continuous wave signal (see paragraph 0106, “In the following specification, the radar device according to an embodiment will be described as if it is a FMCW type radar device using a fast chirp signal, however the present disclosure is not limited thereto.”).
Regarding claim 13, LEE further discloses
The radar device of claim 1, wherein the transmission circuit emits a third transmission signal (see paragraph 0062, where a plurality of transmission signals are transmitted, further see Fig. 9 where distance is tracked over time and several data points are used to track this movement and therefore more than two transmission signals are transmitted by the system), and
wherein the reception circuit is configured to:
receive a third reception signal associated with the third transmission signal (see paragraph 0062, “As described above, the radar device according to the present embodiment may be a MIMO radar device that transmits a plurality of transmission signals simultaneously or in time division through multiple transmission antennas and receives the reception signals through multiple receiving antennas.”, further see Fig. 9, further see paragraph 0201, “Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the azimuth and elevation angles of the target may be precisely estimated by storing phase error information for each distance as shown in FIG. 9 as a lookup table and correcting the phase error when estimating target information.”);
convert the third reception signal into third data (see paragraph 0061, “The receiver included in the transceiver 200 may include a low noise amplifier (LNA) which low-noise-amplifies a reflected signal received through the receiving antenna, a mixer which mixes the low-noise-amplified reception signal, an amplifier which amplifies the mixed reception signal, and a converter (analog-to-digital converter (ADC)) which digitally converts the amplified reception signal to generate reception data.”, where each received signal is converted using an ADC (i.e. digitized) which is indeed converting the third reception signal into a third data); and
synchronize a phase of the third reception signal with the phase of the first reception signal based on the first data and the third data and output a second compensation signal (see paragraph 0201, “Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the azimuth and elevation angles of the target may be precisely estimated by storing phase error information for each distance as shown in FIG. 9 as a lookup table and correcting the phase error when estimating target information.”, further see paragraph 0210-0212, “The phase error compensation method according to the embodiment may include a moving object determination step S1110, a phase error determination step S1120, and a lookup table generation step S1130…In the moving object determination step S1110, a moving target may be identified by receiving a reception signal from each of a plurality of receiving antennas. In this case, the moving target may be determined by comparing the tracked object during a specific scan period with another object during the corresponding scan period…In the phase error determination step S1120, the radar device may determine, for each first distance to the moving target, a first phase error, which is a phase difference between a phase of the first reception signal corresponding to the first transmission signal transmitted from the first transmission antenna and a phase of second reception signal corresponding to the second transmission signal transmitted from the second transmission antenna.”).
Regarding claim 15, the same cited section and rationale as claim 1 is applied.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
ARAKAWA et al. (US 20220003833 A1) is considered close pertinent art to the claimed invention as it discloses a radar device utilizing a table to perform phase compensation of radar signals.
LANG et al. (US 20200382170 A1) is considered close pertinent art to the claimed invention as it discloses a radar system using a stored phase compensation table to correct phase data in successively measured radar signals (see paragraph 0099).
Allison et al. (US 20160380623 A1) is considered close pertinent art to the claimed invention as it discloses a radar system that performed a phase calibration process (see paragraph 0032, “A calibration process maps each phase and/or attenuation state to a desired level of compensating attenuation or phase (which may be zero in some cases). The compensating phase and attenuation settings for a fine adjustment circuit may be stored in a look-up table (e.g., a read-only memory, or a set of settable switches or fuses, or a hard-coded metallization layer) that encodes such settings as fixed values mapped to corresponding phase state or attenuation state control words. In addition, some embodiments of the invention allow the level of adjustment produced by the fine adjustment circuit to be selectably programmed by a user.”).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NAZRA N. WAHEED whose telephone number is (571)272-6713. The examiner can normally be reached M-F (8 AM - 4:30 PM).
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/NAZRA NUR WAHEED/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
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