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
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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 7-13, 16-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Mannem et al, NPL cited by applicants,(IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits ( Volume: 56, Issue: 10, October 2021) (Year: 2021).
Re claims 1, 7, 10 and 16:
The reference to Mannem et al , see figure below (fig 3C) , shows a Power Amplifier output network(BALUN 1,2) with balun(balun-1) showing a plurality of interdigitated resonators(metal conductors); the +/- differential output of PA1 feed the Balun 1 via 2 of the interdigitated resonators coupled to the +/- outputs.
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The 3rd resonator is a single ended output and the 4th resonator is coupled to the combiner as labeled.
The method steps being inherent.
Re claims 2 , 8, 11 and 17: both parallel (shunt metal conductors) and series couplings of resonators are shown for each balun. The middle portion of the resonator balun shows the series coupling of 2 resonator lines between reference and combiner nodes.
Re claim 3, 12 and 18: 2 main PA’s are shown with aux PA being PA2 with respective Balun-2. The signal combiner is between the respective balun-1 and balun-2 arms. Note the ϴ=90 degree phase offset.
Re claim 4, 13 and 19: ¼ wavelength transmission lines are used in the Doherty output and load device caps represented(1st cap, 2nd cap), see fig.3(b)
“Fig. 3.
Design flow for the proposed output network. (a) Conventional λ /4 T-line Doherty network with loaded device capacitance. (b) PA output network using coupled line balun to absorb device capacitance and transform load impedance. (c) Proposed architecture using 90° coupler to enable multiple Doherty operations.”
The transmission line has inherent LC parameters and thus the load caps will help absorb/match the output load.
Re claim 9: the balun-1 and balun-2 parallel resonators allow for multiple frequency resonance response with phase offset.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-6,14-15 and 20 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The reference to Takagi ‘748 (see PTOL 892)shows a Doherty amplifier config, but does not suggest the interdigitated resonator.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ARNOLD M KINKEAD whose telephone number is (571)272-1763. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7am-5:30pm(Fri-Flex).
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/ARNOLD M KINKEAD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2836
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