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.
Claims 1-4, 16 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (US 2022/0311422) in view of Lu et al. (US 2021/0210843) and Tseng et al. (US 2022/0392399).
As to claims 1 and 18, Liu discloses in figures 1-2, a liquid crystal phase shifter, comprising: a first substrate 11; a second substrate 12 arranged opposite to the first substrate; a liquid crystal layer 13 arranged between the first substrate and the second substrate; and at least one adjustment unit Cps; wherein: one of the at least one adjustment unit comprises a first electrode 14, a second electrode 15 and a control circuit 1; the first electrode is arranged at a side of the first substrate close to the second substrate; the second electrode is arranged at a side of the second substrate close to the first substrate; an orthographic projection of the second electrode on the first substrate partially overlaps an orthographic projection of the first electrode on the first substrate (paragraph [0039]); a control circuit 1 is arranged between the first substrate and the first electrode.
Liu does not disclose that the second electrode is grounded. However, Lu discloses in paragraph [0004], that it was conventional for a liquid crystal antenna to include an emission patch (first electrode), a ground electrode (second electrode), and liquid crystals disposed between the emission patch and the ground electrode. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Liu wherein the second electrode is grounded because conventional structures were known for being cost-effective and reliable.
Liu does not disclose the recited structure of the control circuit. Tseng discloses in figure 1, a control circuit 110, which may be used to switch the pixels in a liquid crystal antenna (paragraph [0020]), comprising: a driving sub-circuit 111, a switching sub-circuit 113, and a reset sub-circuit 114, wherein the driving sub-circuit is configured to input a voltage to the first electrode, the switching sub-circuit is configured to control on or off the driving sub-circuit, and the reset sub-circuit is configured to reset a voltage of a control terminal of the driving sub-circuit. Tseng discloses in paragraphs [0006] and [0059] that the disclosed control circuit may protect the pixel from abnormal voltages. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Liu by providing the control circuit structure of Tseng in order to protect the pixels of the liquid crystal antenna from abnormal voltages.
As to claims 2 and 19, Liu in view of Lu and Tseng discloses all of the elements of the claimed invention discussed above regarding claims 1 and 18. Tseng further discloses in figure 1, wherein: an input terminal of the driving sub-circuit 111 is connected to a power signal line VDD, an output terminal of the driving sub-circuit is connected to the first electrode 115_1, and the control terminal of the driving sub-circuit 111 is connected to an output terminal of the switching sub-circuit 113; an input terminal of the switching sub-circuit 113 is connected to a data signal line Din, a control terminal of the switching sub-circuit is connected to a data signal control line Sn; and the control terminal of the driving sub-circuit 111 is connected to an output terminal of the reset sub-circuit 114, an input terminal of the reset sub-circuit is connected to a reset signal line, and a control terminal of the reset sub-circuit 114 is connected to a reset signal control line RST.
As to claim 3, Liu in view of Lu and Tseng discloses all of the elements of the claimed invention discussed above regarding claim 2. Liu further discloses in figure 2, wherein the at least one adjustment unit Cps comprises a plurality of the adjustment units.
As to claims 4 and 20, Liu in view of Lu and Tseng discloses all of the elements of the claimed invention discussed above regarding claims 2 and 19. Tseng further discloses in figure 1, wherein: the driving sub-circuit 111 comprises a third transistor, the input terminal of the driving sub-circuit is a source electrode of the third transistor, the output terminal of the driving sub-circuit is a drain electrode of the third transistor, and the control terminal of the driving sub-circuit is a gate electrode of the third transistor; the switching sub-circuit 113 comprises a second transistor, the input terminal of the switching sub-circuit is a source electrode of the second transistor, the output terminal of the switching sub-circuit is a drain electrode of the second transistor, and the control terminal of the switching sub-circuit is a gate electrode of the second transistor; and the reset sub-circuit 114 comprises a first transistor, the input terminal of the reset sub-circuit is a source electrode of the first transistor, the output terminal of the reset sub-circuit is a drain electrode of the first transistor, and the control terminal of the reset sub-circuit is a gate electrode of the first transistor.
As to claim 16, Liu in view of Lu and Tseng discloses all of the elements of the claimed invention discussed above regarding claim 1, but does not disclose wherein a first planarization layer is arranged at a side of the first electrode away from the first substrate, a second planarization layer is arranged at a side of the second electrode away from the second substrate, and a spacer is arranged between the first planarization layer and the second planarization layer. However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Liu by providing a first planarization layer arranged at a side of the first electrode away from the first substrate and a second planarization layer arranged at a side of the second electrode away from the second substrate in order to protect the electrical components on the first and second substrate from being contaminated by ions and impurities in the liquid crystal layer. Furthermore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Liu by providing a spacer arranged between the first planarization layer and the second planarization layer in order to maintain a stable cell gap between the first and second substrates.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (US 2022/0311422) in view of Lu et al. (US 2021/0210843) and Tseng et al. (US 2022/0392399) as applied to claim 4 above, and further in view of Lin et al. (US 2021/0125888).
Liu in view of Lu and Tseng discloses all of the elements of the claimed invention discussed above regarding claim 4, but does not disclose wherein a material of an active portion of the third transistor is low-temperature polysilicon, and materials of an active portion of the first transistor and an active portion of the second transistor are Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (IGZO). However, these were conventional materials for forming the active portion of transistors in a liquid crystal antenna, as evidenced by paragraphs [0020] and [0024] of Lin. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Liu wherein a material of an active portion of the third transistor is low-temperature polysilicon, and materials of an active portion of the first transistor and an active portion of the second transistor are Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (IGZO), because conventional structures were known to be cost-effective and reliable.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 17 is allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: none of the prior art taught or fairly suggested a method for operating a liquid crystal phase shifter comprising the combination required by claim 17, wherein the method comprises: turning on the reset sub-circuit, turning off the switching sub-circuit and the driving sub-circuit, and inputting a low-level signal to a reset signal line which is connected to an input terminal of the reset sub-circuit to reset the voltage of the control terminal of the driving sub-circuit; turning off the reset sub-circuit, turning on the switching sub-circuit and the driving sub-circuit, and inputting a signal to a data signal line which is connected to an input terminal of the switching sub-circuit to transmit the signal to the control terminal of the driving sub-circuit to turn on the driving sub-circuit; and turning off the reset sub-circuit and the switching sub-circuit, and inputting a signal to a power signal line which is connected to the driving sub-circuit to apply the voltage to the first electrode through the driving sub-circuit.
Claims 5 and 7-15 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: none of the prior art taught or fairly suggested a liquid crystal phase shifter comprising the combination required by claim 5, wherein: the plurality of the adjustment units are arranged in a rectangular array; gate electrodes of first transistors of two control circuits located in a same row are connected to a same reset signal control line; gate electrodes of second transistors of two control circuits located in a same row are connected to a same data signal control line; source electrodes of first transistors of two control circuits located in a same column are connected to a same reset signal line; source electrodes of second transistors of two control circuits located in a same column are connected to a same data signal line; and source electrodes of third transistors of two control circuits located in a same column are connected to a same power signal line.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: none of the prior art taught or fairly suggested a liquid crystal phase shifter comprising the combination required by claim 7, wherein the control circuit comprises: a first transistor layer arranged at a side of the first substrate, wherein the first transistor layer comprises a first active layer, a first gate insulating layer and a first gate layer sequentially arranged in a direction away from the first substrate, the first active layer comprises an active portion of the third transistor, and the first gate layer comprises the gate electrode of the third transistor; and a second transistor layer arranged at a side of the first transistor layer away from the first substrate, wherein the second transistor layer comprises a second active layer, a second gate insulating layer and a second gate layer, the second active layer comprises an active portion of the first transistor and an active portion of the second transistor, and the second gate layer comprises the gate electrode of the first transistor and the gate electrode of the second transistor. Claims 8-15 are objected to by virtue of their dependency.
Conclusion
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/DAVID Y CHUNG/Examiner, Art Unit 2871
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