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 without traverse of Group II, claims 11-16 in the reply filed on 05/18/2026 is acknowledged.
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) 11 and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Harry et al. (US 6097200 A) hereafter Harry.
Regarding claims 11 and 16, Harry at fig. 1-3 discloses all the elements including a method for testing a plurality of circuit board assemblies, comprising: placing the plurality of circuit board assemblies [plurality of 38/52/12/36] into an oven [housing for 38/52/12/36 as shown], wherein each of the plurality of circuit board assemblies in the oven is in a standby state [when received/loaded 38/52/12/36]; obtaining a temperature value [using 30] of each of the plurality of circuit board assemblies in the standby state via a temperature sensor 30 of each of the plurality of circuit board assemblies; and selectively switching an on-off-state [using “oven controller” and 30/32/38/52] of at least one channel of at least one heat source 38/52 of each of the plurality of circuit board assemblies in the standby state based on the temperature value of each of the plurality of circuit board assemblies [see “It should be appreciated that heat transfer element 38 is controlled by sensor 30 and temperature calibration device 32. Specifically, sensor 30 monitors the temperature inside of oven 36 closely adjacent DUTs 28 so that the hardware on board 62 takes the temperature reading of sensor 30 and correlates the calibration data in temperature calibration device 32 to accurately adjust the temperature inside of oven 36 to within 1.degree. C. of the temperature setting.”].
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) 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Harry as applied to claim 11 above.
Regarding claim 15, Harry discloses at least one heat source of each of the plurality of circuit board assemblies. Harry is silent about said at least one heat source of each of the plurality of circuit board assemblies is a transimpedance amplifier. Use of transimpedance amplifier (TIA) as heat source is implicit to its function on the circuit board assembly. An obvious choice to have it as part of the circuit board to convert current signal to a voltage signal. Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to use TIA with the circuit board 12 of Harry to obtain claim invention and generate negligible heat using low-power, signal conditioning circuit of TIA.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 12-14 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: No prior art has been found that meets the limitations of claim 12 calling for a method for testing a plurality of circuit board assemblies, comprising: wherein before obtaining the temperature value of each of the plurality of circuit board assemblies in the standby state via the temperature sensor of each of the plurality of circuit board assemblies, the method further comprises: obtaining an average temperature value of the plurality of circuit board assemblies in the standby state via the temperature sensors of the plurality of circuit board assemblies; and adjusting the temperature of the oven based on the average temperature value. Dependent claim 13 is also allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: No prior art has been found that meets the limitations of claim 14 calling for a method for testing a plurality of circuit board assemblies, comprising: wherein the at least one channel of the at least one heat source of each of the plurality of circuit board assemblies comprises a plurality of channels, when the plurality of circuit board assemblies are in the standby state, in the at least one heat source of each of the plurality of circuit board assemblies, some of the plurality of channels are set in an on-state, and some of the plurality of channels are set in an off-state; selectively switching the on-off-state of the at least one channel of the at least one heat source of each of the plurality of circuit board assemblies in the standby state based on the temperature value of each of the plurality of circuit board assemblies comprises: comparing the temperature value of each of the plurality of circuit board assemblies and at least one critical temperature value to turn off at least one of the plurality of channels set in the on-state or turn on at least one of the plurality of channels set in the off-state based on the comparing result.
Conclusion
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/PARESH PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2858
May 28, 2026
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