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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of claims 1-4, 7-14, 19-20 and 52 in the reply filed on 10/31/25 is acknowledged. However, the non-elected claims 31-32, 35, 37-38 have been canceled and thus, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.01(a)). Claims 53-58 are newly added. The newly added claims 55-58 necessitate a further restriction as below:
Embodiment I, directed to Figures 1-4, comprising feed probes being metallized-polymer probes and capacitively couplings.
Embodiment II, directed to Figures 10a-10c, comprising feed probes being stamped from the patch radiating element and directly couplings.
The species are independent or distinct because under PCT Rule 13.2, they lack the same or corresponding special technical features as set forth above.
Claims 1-4, 7-14, 19-20 and 52-54 are examined in this office action. Accordingly, claims 55-58 are withdrawn from consideration.
Claim Objections
Claims 1 and 52 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Lines 5-6, “the first and second feed signal output ports” should be changed to “the first and second pairs of feed signal output ports to provide proper antecedent basis for claims.
Appropriate correction is required.
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, 7-10, 19-20, and 54 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over You (CN 106602267) in view of Wang (WO 2020/242783).
Regarding claim 1, You discloses in Figures 1-3, an antenna, comprising:
a patch radiating element (1) electrically coupled to the first and second pairs of feed signal output ports (2), said patch radiating element (1) having an electrically conductive forward-facing surface thereon that is segmented into four quadrants by four generally L-shaped slots (see arrow slots on patch 1, Figs. 1, 3) within the electrically conductive forward-facing surface (1),
said four generally L-shaped slots positioned back-to-back relative each other so that a cross-shaped portion of the electrically conductive forward-facing surface extends between the four generally L-shaped slots and radially outward towards four respective points on a perimeter of the patch radiating element (1).
You is silent on a cross-polarized feed signal network configured to convert first and second radio frequency (RF) input feed signals to first and second pairs of cross-polarized feed signals at respective first and second pairs of feed signal output ports.
Wang discloses in Figures 3A and 4B, a cross-polarized feed signal network (30) configured to convert first and second radio frequency (RF) input feed signals (n1, p1) to first and second pairs of cross-polarized feed signals (32a-32c, 32b-32d) at respective first and second pairs of feed signal output ports.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to include the feed signal network of Wang in the antenna of You to provide a high cross polarization, high isolation signals for the antenna and optimal antenna gain. Therefore, to employ having the feed signal network as claimed invention would have been obvious to person skill in the art.
Regarding claim 2, as applied to claim 1, You discloses in Figures 1-3,
wherein said patch radiating element (1) has a rectangular-shaped perimeter; and
wherein the cross-shaped portion of the electrically conductive forward-facing surface extends radially outward towards four respective sides of the patch radiating element (1).
Regarding claim 3, as applied to claim 2, You discloses in Figures 1-3,
wherein a center of the cross-shaped portion of the electrically conductive forward-facing surface is aligned to a geometric center of the electrically conductive forward-facing surface.
Regarding claim 4, as applied to claim 1, You discloses in Figures 1-3,
wherein the electrically conductive forward-facing surface (1) is a metallized surface, which extends on a forward-facing surface of a patch radiating element substrate (3, see Figs. 1-2); and wherein the four generally L-shaped slots expose the forward-facing surface of the patch radiating element substrate.
Regarding claim 7, as applied to claim 4, You discloses in Figures 1-3,
wherein four generally L-shaped slots are patterned such that the cross-shaped portion of the electrically conductive forward-facing surface includes a central hub portion and four spoke portions that extend radially outward at 00, 900, 1800 and 2700 from a center of the central hub portion.
Regarding claim 8, You discloses in Figures 1-3, the central hub portion having a generally shape when viewed from a plan perspective.
You is silent on the shape being a circular shape. However, such difference is not patentable merit. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to modify the shape of the central hub to achieve desire radiation characteristics for antenna. Therefore, to employ having the central hub as claimed invention would have been obvious to person skill in the art.
Regarding claims 9-10, as applied to claim 4, You discloses in Figures 1-2, further comprising
four probes (2), which electrically couple respective ones of the four quadrants of the electrically conductive forward-facing surface to corresponding ones of the first and second pairs of feed signal output ports;
wherein the four probes (2) have distal ends that extend at least partially through the patch radiating element substrate (3).
Regarding claims 19-20, as applied to claim 4, Wang discloses in Figure 2, further comprising
four probes (22) having: (i) first ends electrically coupled to corresponding ones of the first and second pairs of feed signal output ports, and (ii) second arcuate-shaped ends (22a), which extend on a rear-facing surface of the patch radiating element substrate;
wherein each of the second arcuate-shaped ends (22a) is capacitively coupled through the patch radiating element substrate to a corresponding one of the four quadrants of the electrically conductive forward-facing surface (12).
Regarding claim 54, as applied to claim 4, You discloses in Figures 1-3,
wherein each of the four generally L-shaped slots includes a pair of linear slot segments having generally L-shaped ends.
Claim 52 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al (WO 2020/242783) in view of You (CN 106602267).
Regarding claim 52, Wang discloses in Figure , an antenna, comprising:
a cross-polarized feed signal network (30b, Figs. 3 and 4b) configured to convert first and second radio frequency (RF) input feed signals (n1, p1) to first and second pairs of cross-polarized feed signals at respective first and second pairs of feed signal output ports (32a-32c, 32b-32d, Fig. 4b);
a patch radiating element (12) electrically coupled to the first and second feed signal output ports, said patch radiating element (12) having an electrically conductive forward-facing surface thereon that is segmented into four quadrants by a plurality of slots within the electrically conductive forward-facing surface; and
four metallized-polymer probes (22), which are electrically connected to respective portions of a rear-facing surface of the patch radiating element (12); and
wherein the patch radiating element substrate (10) and the four metallized-polymer probes (22) are configured as a single piece unitary body.
Wang does not disclose the patch radiating element segmented into four quadrants by a plurality of slots within the electrically conductive forward-facing surface.
You discloses in Figures 1-3, the patch radiating element (1) segmented into four quadrants by a plurality of slots (see arrow slots in patch 1, Fig. 1) within the electrically conductive forward-facing surface.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to modify the patch radiating element of Wang with the patch radiating element as taught by You to extend frequency bandwidth of the antenna. Therefore, to employ having the patch radiating element as claimed invention would have been obvious to person skill in the art.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11-14 and 53 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.
Inquiry
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DIEU HIEN T DUONG whose telephone number is (571)272-8980. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00am-4:00pm.
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/DIEU HIEN T DUONG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845