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 § 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Meng (US 11,258,150).
Figure 5 has been annotated and included for reference in the rejection below.
PNG
media_image1.png
378
544
media_image1.png
Greyscale
In regard to Claim 1:
Meng discloses, in Figure 5, a TM-mode dielectric filter, comprising: a housing (1), wherein a resonant cavity (Cavity) is disposed on the housing (1); a support structure (3) disposed at a cavity bottom of the resonant cavity (cavity of 1); a dielectric resonant rod (2), wherein one end of the dielectric resonant rod (2) is mounted on the support structure (3; Column 26: lines 11-22), and the dielectric resonant rod (2) is provided with a plurality of adjustment holes (Column 26: lines 39-43); a cover plate (CP) connected to the housing (1) and covering an opening of the resonant cavity (the cover plate covers the cavity of 1); a buffer pad (7) disposed in the resonant cavity (cavity), covering an other end of the dielectric resonant rod (2), and sandwiched between the dielectric resonant rod (2) and the cover plate (CP); and a tuning assembly (6) disposed on the cover plate (CP), wherein each adjustment hole is configured with a corresponding tuning assembly (Column 26: lines 16-25), but does not disclose, in Figure 5, a plurality of tuning assemblies disposed on the cover plate, wherein each adjustment hole of the plurality of adjustment holes is configured with a corresponding one of the plurality of tuning assemblies.
Meng discloses, in Figure 3, a plurality of tuning assemblies (6) disposed on the cover plate (plate above 2 in Figure 3), wherein each adjustment hole of the plurality of adjustment holes (5) is configured with a corresponding one of the plurality of tuning assemblies (6; Column 26: lines 16-25).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to use the plurality of tuning assemblies taught by Meng in Figure 3 with the cavity resonant filter taught by Meng in Figure 5, in order to change the distance or change capacitance in an area of concentrated field intensity (Meng Column 29: lines 56-60).
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Meng (US 11,258,150), in view of Abdulnour (US 2002/0041221).
In regard to Claim 2:
All of the claim limitations have been discussed with respect to Claim 1 above, except for wherein the buffer pad is a metal plate.
Abdulnour discloses wherein the buffer pad (144) is a metal plate (Paragraph 0056).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to use the conductive slab buffer pad taught by Abdulnour with the dielectric cavity filter taught by Meng, in order to reduce hybrid mode propagation by filling the air gap between the top of the dielectric resonator and the top of the structure (Abdulnour Paragraph 0056).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-10 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.
Mansour (US 9,979,063) discloses a rod-switched tunable resonator includes a housing defining a cavity, a first rod disposed within the cavity, a second rod disposed within the cavity, and a switch connected to the first rod and to the second rod to tune the resonator to one of a plurality of frequencies by connecting or disconnecting one or both of the first and second rods to the housing. A tunable filter may be fabricated using two or more such resonators. The rod-switched tunable resonator may be a comb-line resonator, coaxial resonator, waveguide resonator, or dielectric resonator.
Fuller et al. (US 4,630,012) discloses a ring-shaped dielectric resonator tuned by inserting a bolt from below the resonator into an opening of the resonator. The bolt causes the dielectric constant of the opening to change. The change in the dielectric constant changes the electric field which in turn changes the magnetic field of the resonator.
Meng (US 11,735,801) discloses a high-Q triple-mode cavity dielectric resonant hollow structure and a filter with the dielectric resonant structure. The structure includes a cavity and a cover plate, wherein the cavity is internally provided with a cube-like dielectric resonance block and a dielectric support frame; the cube-like dielectric resonance block and the dielectric support frame form a triple-mode dielectric resonance rod; air is arranged between the triple-mode dielectric resonance rod and an inner wall of the cavity; one end or any end of the cube-like dielectric resonance block is connected with the dielectric support frame respectively; the dielectric support frame is connected with an inner wall of the cavity; and the cube-like dielectric resonance block forms triple-mode resonance in directions of X, Y and Z-axes of the cavity.
Meng (US 11,942,672) discloses a cavity high-Q triple-mode dielectric resonance structure and a filter with the resonance structure. The resonance structure includes a cavity and a cover plate, wherein an arrangement inside the cavity includes a cube-like dielectric resonance block and a dielectric support frame; the cube-like dielectric resonance block and the dielectric support frame form a triple-mode dielectric resonance rod; between the triple-mode dielectric resonance rod and an inner wall of the cavity is air; one or any end of the cube-like dielectric resonance block is connected with the dielectric support frame respectively; the dielectric support frame is connected with the inner wall of the cavity; and the cube-like dielectric resonance block forms a triple-mode resonance in three directions of axes X, Y and Z of the cavity.
Wang et al. (US 2024/0120631) discloses a cavity filter. An inner wall of a resonant cavity is provided with a plurality of non-coplanar extension sections inclined toward an outer wall; and meanwhile, each extension section gradually extends toward an end cover from a bottom shell. Thus, a volume of the resonant cavity is increased, making an insertion loss smaller; an outer dimension of the cavity filter is further reduced, making an overall weight lighter; and meanwhile, during casting of a shell portion of the cavity filter, the difficulty of demolding is reduced.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to John W Poos whose telephone number is (571)270-5077. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 8-5.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jessica Han can be reached at 571-272-2078. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/JOHN W POOS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2896