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 .
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed September 1, 2026, has been entered. Claims 1-20 remain pending in the application. Claims 5-7, 9, and 19 are withdrawn from consideration.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Species IV in the reply filed on September 1, 2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 5-7, 9, 16, and 19 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on September 1, 2026.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities: On Paragraph 69, line 11, replace “capacitors 400, 402-1, and 404-2” with “capacitors 400, 402-1, and 402-2”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
Claim 17 is objected to because of the following informality: On claim 17, line 5, insert “the” between “wherein” and “output signal”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-3, 8, 12, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and (a)(2) as being anticipated by Yang et al. (Patent Publication Number CN 106,253,863 A), hereafter referred to as Yang.
Regarding claim 1, Yang discloses:
Wireless circuitry (Yang, Fig. 7) comprising: an amplifier (Fig. 7, 8) configured to receive a radio-frequency signal (Fig. 7, see input at element 11); a measurement circuit (Fig. 7, see elements 1, 2, 5, and 18) coupled to a power supply terminal of the amplifier (Fig. 7, see connection between 1 and drain of 8) and configured to output a measured value (Page 5, Paragraph 1, lines 4-6); and control circuitry (Fig. 7, see elements 1, 3, and 6) configured to adjust one or more components associated with the amplifier based on the measured value output from the measurement circuit (Page 5, Paragraph 1, lines 6-11).
Regarding claim 2, Yang further discloses:
wherein the control circuitry is further configured to adjust an input matching circuit of the amplifier based on the measured value (Yang, Page 5, Paragraph 4, lines 8-9), and wherein the input matching circuit comprises one or more adjustable capacitors (Fig. 7, C13).
Regarding claim 3, Yang further discloses:
wherein the control circuitry is further configured to adjust an output matching circuit of the amplifier based on the measured value (Yang, Page 5, Paragraph 4, lines 8-10), and wherein the output matching circuit comprises one or more adjustable capacitors (Fig. 7, C23).
Regarding claim 8, Yang further discloses:
wherein the measurement circuit is configured to measure an amount of current drawn by the amplifier (Yang, Page 8, Section “Third Embodiment”, Paragraph 2, lines 1-3).
Regarding claim 12, Yang discloses:
Circuitry (Yang, Fig. 7) comprising: an input transistor (Fig. 7, 8); an input matching circuit (Fig. 7, 4) coupled to a gate terminal of the input transistor (Fig. 7, see connection between 4 and gate of 8); an inductor (Fig. 7, L2) coupled in series with the input transistor (Fig. 7, consider series connection of L2 and 8); and a current measurement circuit (Fig. 7, see elements 1, 2, 5, and 18) electrically coupled to at least the inductor (Fig. 7, see connection between 18 and L2) and configured to produce an output signal for tuning the input matching circuit (Page 5, Paragraph 4, lines 8-9).
Regarding claim 15, Yang further discloses:
further comprising: an output matching circuit (Yang, Fig. 7, 7) directly coupled to the inductor (Fig. 7, consider that inductor L21 is also an inductor in series with input transistor 8, and that output matching circuit components C23 and L22 are directly coupled to inductor L21) and tuned based on the output signal of the current measurement circuit (Page 5, Paragraph 1, lines 6-11).
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 4, 10-11, 13, 18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang as applied to claim 1 (for claims 4 and 10-11), or claim 12 (for claim 13), above, or no above claim (for claims 18 and 20), and further in view of Chow et al. (Patent Publication Number US 2010/0127776 A1), hereafter referred to as Chow.
Regarding claim 4, Yang fails to disclose:
wherein the control circuitry is further configured to adjust one or more bias voltages of the amplifier based on the measured value.
However, Chow teaches wherein the control circuitry is further configured to adjust one or more bias voltages of the amplifier (Chow, Paragraph 21, lines 1-3) based on the measured value (Fig. 3, see connection between bias circuit 340 and terminals RFin and RFout).
Yang and Chow are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Yang to incorporate the teachings of Chow to include the bias circuit of Chow in the circuit of Yang, which would have the effect of providing a high linearity bias circuit for the amplifier of Yang (Chow, Paragraph 20, lines 1-5).
Regarding claim 10, Yang fails to disclose:
wherein the measurement circuit comprises: a current mirror circuit coupled to the amplifier; and a low pass filter coupled to the current mirror circuit.
However, Chow teaches wherein the measurement circuit comprises: a current mirror circuit (Chow, Fig. 3, 320 and 330) coupled to the amplifier (Fig. 3, see connections between 320/330 and 311/312); and a low pass filter (Fig. 3, consider CBYPASS and R304, see also Paragraph 4, lines 9-10) coupled to the current mirror circuit (Fig. 3, see connection between 320/330 and CBYPASS/R304).
Yang and Chow are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Yang to incorporate the teachings of Chow to include the bias circuit of Chow in the circuit of Yang, which would have the effect of providing a high linearity bias circuit for the amplifier of Yang (Chow, Paragraph 20, lines 1-5).
Regarding claim 11, Yang fails to disclose:
wherein the measurement circuit comprises: a current mirror circuit coupled to the amplifier; and a resistor coupled to the current mirror circuit.
However, Chow teaches wherein the measurement circuit comprises: a current mirror circuit (Chow, Fig. 3, 320 and 330) coupled to the amplifier (Fig. 3, see connections between 320/330 and 311/312); and a resistor (Fig. 3, R304) coupled to the current mirror circuit (Fig. 3, see connection between 320/330 and R304).
Yang and Chow are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Yang to incorporate the teachings of Chow to include the bias circuit of Chow in the circuit of Yang, which would have the effect of providing a high linearity bias circuit for the amplifier of Yang (Chow, Paragraph 20, lines 1-5).
Regarding claim 13, Yang fails to disclose:
further comprising: bias resistors coupled to the gate terminal of the input transistor and configured to receive a bias voltage that is tuned based on the output signal of the current measurement circuit.
However, Chow teaches further comprising: bias resistors (Chow, Fig. 3, R303) coupled to the gate terminal of the input transistor (Fig. 3, see connection between R303 and gate of 311) and configured to receive a bias voltage (Fig. 3, see connection between R303 and N303) that is tuned based on the output signal of the current measurement circuit (Fig. 3, see connection between bias circuit 340 and terminals RFin and RFout).
Yang and Chow are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Yang to incorporate the teachings of Chow to include the bias circuit of Chow in the circuit of Yang, which would have the effect of providing a high linearity bias circuit for the amplifier of Yang (Chow, Paragraph 20, lines 1-5).
Regarding claim 18, Yang discloses:
Circuitry (Yang, Fig. 7) comprising: a first amplifier (Fig. 7, 8); a power detector (Fig. 7, see elements 1, 2, 5, and 18) coupled to a power supply terminal of the first amplifier (Fig. 7, see connection between 18 and drain of 8) and configured to output a measured value (Page 5, Paragraph 1, lines 4-6); and control circuitry (Fig. 7, see elements 1, 3, and 6) configured to control the first and second amplifiers based on the measured value output from the power detector (Page 5, Paragraph 1, lines 6-11), but fails to disclose a second amplifier.
However, Chow teaches a second amplifier (Chow, Fig. 3, 312).
Yang and Chow are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Yang to incorporate the teachings of Chow to include the bias circuit of Chow in the circuit of Yang, which would have the effect of providing a high linearity bias circuit for the amplifier of Yang (Chow, Paragraph 20, lines 1-5).
Regarding claim 20, Yang further discloses:
further comprising: an input matching circuit (Yang, Fig. 7, 4) coupled to an input of the first amplifier (Fig. 7, see connection between 4 and input of 8); and an output matching circuit (Fig. 7, 7) coupled to an output of the second amplifier (Fig. 7, consider an embodiment of Fig. 7 of Yang wherein the transistor 8 is replaced with the cascode transistors 311 and 312 of Chow, and that the output matching circuit 7 is coupled to the output of the amplifier module 8), the first amplifier has a first input transistor (Fig. 7, 8) and the control circuitry is further configured to adjust one or more of the input matching circuit, the output matching circuit, the first bias voltage, and the second bias voltage based on the measured value output from the power detector (Page 5, Paragraph 1, lines 6-11), but fails to disclose wherein: the second amplifier is coupled to an output of the first amplifier; [the first input transistor] configured to receive a first bias voltage; the second amplifier has a second input transistor configured to receive a second bias voltage.
However, Chow further teaches wherein: the second amplifier is coupled to an output of the first amplifier (Chow, Fig. 3, see connection between 312 and output of 311); [the first input transistor] configured to receive a first bias voltage (Fig. 3, consider bias voltage from R303); the second amplifier has a second input transistor (Fig. 3, 312) configured to receive a second bias voltage (Fig. 3, consider bias voltage from R304).
Yang and Chow are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Yang to incorporate the teachings of Chow to include the bias circuit of Chow in the circuit of Yang, which would have the effect of providing a high linearity bias circuit for the amplifier of Yang (Chow, Paragraph 20, lines 1-5).
Claims 14 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang as applied to claim 12 above, and further in view of Yu et al. (Patent Number US 11,533,075 B1), hereafter referred to as Yu, and Chow.
Regarding claim 14, Yang fails to disclose:
further comprising: a capacitor coupled across the inductor; and a cascode transistor having a source terminal coupled to the input transistor, a drain terminal coupled to the inductor and the capacitor, and a gate terminal configured to receive a bias voltage that is tuned based on the output signal of the current measurement circuit.
However, Yu teaches further comprising: a capacitor (Yu, Fig. 6, 670) coupled across the inductor (Fig. 6, see capacitor 670 across inductor 660); and a cascode transistor (Fig. 6, 640) having a source terminal coupled to the input transistor (Fig. 6, see connection between source of 640 and drain of 630), a drain terminal coupled to the inductor and the capacitor (Fig. 6, see connection between drain of 640 and inductor 660 and capacitor 670), and a gate terminal configured to receive a bias voltage (Fig. 6, see connection between gate of 640 and Vb) but fails to disclose [bias voltage] that is tuned based on the output signal of the current measurement circuit.
However, Chow teaches [bias voltage] that is tuned based on the output signal of the current measurement circuit (Fig. 3, see connection between bias circuit 340 and cascode transistor 312 and terminals RFin and RFout).
Yang, Yu, and Chow are all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Yang to incorporate the teachings of Yu and Chow to include the LC circuit of Yu in the circuit of Yang, which would have the effect of enabling a high gain for the amplifier of Yang (Yu, Col. 8, lines 43-55), and to include the bias circuit of Chow in the circuit of Yang, which would have the effect of providing a high linearity bias circuit for the amplifier of Yang (Chow, Paragraph 20, lines 1-5).
Regarding claim 17, Yang further discloses:
wherein output signal represents a DC (direct current) current drawn by the input transistor (Yang, Page 8, Section “Third Embodiment”, Paragraph 2, lines 1-3), wherein the current measurement circuit comprises: a capacitor coupled across the inductor; a current mirror circuit coupled to the inductor and the capacitor; a resistor coupled to the current mirror circuit; and a low pass filter coupled to the current mirror circuit.
However, Yu teaches wherein the current measurement circuit comprises: a capacitor coupled across the inductor (Yu, Fig. 6, see capacitor 670 coupled across inductor 660); but fails to teach a current mirror circuit coupled to the inductor and the capacitor; a resistor coupled to the current mirror circuit; and a low pass filter coupled to the current mirror circuit.
However, Chow teaches a current mirror circuit (Chow, Fig. 3, 320 and 330) coupled to the inductor and the capacitor (Fig. 3, consider connection between 330 and inductor L316, and further consider that inductor L316 is analogous to inductor 660 and capacitor 670 of Fig. 6 of Yu); a resistor (Fig. 3, R305) coupled to the current mirror circuit (Fig. 3, see connection between R305 and 330); and a low pass filter (Fig. 3, consider CBYPASS and R304, see also Paragraph 4, lines 9-10) coupled to the current mirror circuit (Fig. 3, see connection between 320/330 and CBYPASS/R304).
Yang, Yu, and Chow are all considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of improving amplifiers used in radio frequency communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified Yang to incorporate the teachings of Yu and Chow to include the LC circuit of Yu in the circuit of Yang, which would have the effect of enabling a high gain for the amplifier of Yang (Yu, Col. 8, lines 43-55), and to include the bias circuit of Chow in the circuit of Yang, which would have the effect of providing a high linearity bias circuit for the amplifier of Yang (Chow, Paragraph 20, lines 1-5).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Ayranci et al. (Patent Publication Number US 2024/0007058 A1) discloses (Fig. 3A) an RF amplifier with an output RLC matching circuit.
Gorbachov et al. (Patent Publication Number US 2020/0195202 A1) discloses (Fig. 1) an RF amplifier with an input matching circuit.
Pehlke et al. (Patent Publication Number US 2005/0032488 A1) discloses (Fig. 8) an RF amplifier with a power supply circuit including a current mirror.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Lance T Bartol whose telephone number is (703)756-1267. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday 6:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. CT, Alternating Fridays 6:30 - 3:00.
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/LANCE TORBJORN BARTOL/Examiner, Art Unit 2843
/ANDREA LINDGREN BALTZELL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2843
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