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, 9-10, 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) as being anticipated by Zhang (CN-109212330-A).
Regarding claims 1,10, Zhang discloses a method and a beamforming transmission system (see Fig. 1 below), the system comprising,
one or more transmission elements (antenna elements 131 to 134), the one or more transmission elements each comprising
a power amplifier (PA 125 to PA 128, Fig. 1);
an antenna coupled to the power amplifier (antenna elements 131 to 134); and
a power detector coupled to the antenna (sensing/computing element 190, Fig. 1, page 4);
a power controller coupled to the power amplifier (power controller 118, page 4, Fig. 1);
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a system processing module (processor 111, Fig. 1, page 4) coupled to the one or more transmission elements, the system processing module further coupled to the power controller, the system processing module being arranged to instruct the power controller to control an output power of the power amplifier (the instruction can be described by referring to FIG. 6 executed by a processor. field direction determining device 102 is communicatively coupled to the phased array antenna controller 112. phased array antenna controller 112 comprises a beamformer 114 and emitter 119. beamformer 114 includes a phase controller 116 and a power controller 118, page 4) (power controller controls power amplifier);
wherein the system processing module is arranged to determine a desired beam scanning angle (with phase controller 116, Fig. 1) of the one or more transmission elements and to obtain a present output power of the power amplifier from the power detector (sensing/computing 190 provided feedback to far field determining device 102, Fig. 1, processor 111 determines power and beam angle); and further
wherein the system processing module is arranged to instruct the power controller to control the output power of the power amplifier based on both the desired beam scanning angle and the present output power of the power amplifier (component selection signal 140, the element selection signal to start the single antenna element of the phased array antenna 188 is activated, page 4).
Regarding claims 9, 19, Zhang discloses further comprising a non-transitory memory component to store one or more settings for the system processing module to instruct the power controller to control the output power of the power amplifier based on both the desired beam scanning angle and the present output power of the power amplifier (the memory 108 is a nonvolatile computer readable medium, the nonvolatile computer readable medium comprises executable to cause one or more processing element executes the instruction of the technology described herein, page 4).
Regarding claim 18, Zhang discloses comprising storing one or more settings in a memory component of the beamforming transmission system, the one or more settings for instructing the power controller to control the output power of the power amplifier based on both the desired beam scanning angle and the present output power of the power amplifier (sensing/computing device 190 (e.g., the sensing or calculating) far field pattern 154 and the far field directed graph 154 providing an indication to unit far field pattern determining unit 106. element far field pattern determining unit 106 based on the indication of the far field pattern 154 for generating antenna far field directed graph data element 134 174 and the far field directed graph data 174 stored in the memory 108, page 5)(antenna far field pattern is a combination of beam angle and power output).
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) 2-4 and 11-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang (CN-109212330-A) as applied to claims 1 and 10 above, and further in view of Nammi (EP-3387753-B1).
Regarding claims 2-4 and 11-13, Zhang does not specifically disclose power controller is working to control power amplifier based on a first/second operating mode/output power/supply voltage/supply current.
However, Nammi teaches controlling power amplifiers with evaluating criteria (signal quality, position) and then (see claims 1-2) operate at one of a reduced power modes (linear mode, predistortion mode based on a threshold of path loss value). It would have been obvious to modify Zhang with Nammi by incorporating the two power modes based on output power and path loss threshold value by controlling power output (power output is based on both voltage and current) of each amplifier in order to keep element/antenna operating in an efficient communication power range.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-8, 14-17 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HARRY K LIU whose telephone number is (571)270-1338. The examiner can normally be reached on every M-F 10 AM to 6:30 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, please leave a voice message with application serial number and nature of call, a response within 24 hours can be expected during regular business days. Also, the Examiner’s supervisor Vladimir Magloire can be reached at (571)270-5144. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-270-2338.
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/HARRY K LIU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3645 Tel: (571) 270-1338
Fax: (571) 270-2338
Email: harry.liu@uspto.gov
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