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 § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Katou (US 2016/0254057).
Regarding claim 1, fig. 6 of Katou discloses a circuit comprising: a charge pump [201] having a charge pump output; a voltage divider [102] coupled to the charge pump output, the voltage divider having a voltage divider output; a voltage reference circuit [e.g. that associated with GND]; and a current source circuit [104] having a first input [receiving 601 via 103] coupled to the charge pump output, a second input [at 610] coupled to the voltage divider output, and a third input [at GND] coupled to the voltage reference circuit, the current source circuit configured to adjust a current [e.g. Icntl] based on a difference between a first voltage at the voltage divider output and a second voltage from the reference voltage circuit (based on the feedback mechanism within 104 and from voltage divider 102 to charge pump output to adjust the current in 104).
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.
Claim(s) 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Katou in view of Gharia (US 2018/0150576).
Regarding claim 20, fig. 6 of Katou discloses a pulse generator, comprising: a charge pump [201] having a charge pump output; a voltage divider [102] coupled to the charge pump output, the voltage divider having a voltage divider output; a voltage reference circuit [e.g. that associated with GND]; a current source circuit [104] having a first input [receiving 601 via 103] coupled to the charge pump output, a second input [at 610] coupled to the voltage divider output, and a third input [at GND] coupled to the voltage reference circuit, the current source circuit configured to adjust a current [e.g. Icntl] based on a difference between a first voltage at the voltage divider output and a second voltage from the reference voltage circuit (based on the feedback mechanism within 104 and from voltage divider 102 to charge pump output to adjust the current in 104). Katou does not disclose where the memory at the output of the current source circuit is specifically an EEPROM. However, par. 77 of Gharia describes implementing a memory with EEPROM. In view of such teaching, it would have been obvious to the ordinary artisan before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention as indicated above by incorporating the EEPROM as taught in Gharia for the purpose of utilizing a suitable and well-known type of memory implementation.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-9 and 21-30 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.
Conclusion
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/SIBIN CHEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2836
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