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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 06/01/2026 has been entered.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means,” but are nonetheless being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the claim limitation(s) uses a generic placeholder that is coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to perform the recited function and the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier.
Such claim limitation(s) is/are: “a power management unit (PMU) that dynamically provides different power-supply voltages for the drivers respectively during a line scan period or a frame scan period” in claim 1.
Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are being interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof. The specification fails to provide any disclosure describing the structure for the claimed power management unit and power generator. However, for the purpose of examination, examiner interprets power management unit as circuit for generating voltages signals.
If applicant does not intend to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph (e.g., by reciting sufficient structure to perform the claimed function); or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure to perform the claimed function so as to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. The specification provides no disclosure describing the power supply voltages for the driver are non-data-modulated direct-current (DC) supply voltages.
Claims 2-11 are rejected for being directly or indirectly dependent on rejected independent claim 1.
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) 1-4, 9-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gray et al (US Pub 2021/0343231) in view of PARK et al (US Pub 2022/0172672) and Wang et al (US Pub 2016/0358526).
With respect to claim 1, Gray discloses a display system, (fig. 1; electronic device 100) comprising: a display panel divided into a plurality of display blocks arranged in rows and columns, (fig. 1; device array 105 includes plurality of zones) each display block including a plurality of micro-light-emitting diodes (microLEDs) driven by a corresponding driver disposed in a corresponding display block (par 0031; discloses The device array 105 comprises an array of zone integrated circuits (ICs) 120. In a display device the zone ICs 120 may each include one or more LEDs in an LED zone and associated driver circuitry for driving the LED zone; par 0032; discloses The LEDs of each zone IC 120 may be micro light emitting diodes (micro-LEDs) (e.g., having a size of less than 100 micrometers),); a power management unit (PMU) that provides different power-supply voltages for the drivers respectively during a line scan period or a frame scan period (fig. 2; power line communication driver (PLC) 220; par 0064; discloses During the operational mode 870, the power line communication signal provides control data (Con Data) as digital data modulated onto the supply voltage. The Con Data may be updated with each image frame or video frame. The operational mode 870 continues until the power line communication signal transitions from high to low; par 0037; discloses each PLC driver circuit 220 comprises a ramp generator 222 and a buffer circuit 224. The ramp generator 222 generates a ramp signal 226 that encodes the control signal 212 by switching between a high voltage level and a low (non-zero) voltage level. For example, the ramp generator 220 may switch its output between 5.0V and 4.5V to encode the control signal 212); and a timing controller that determines the different power-supply voltages for the PMU according to content of data to be display on the display panel (fig. 2; timing controller 210; par 0035; discloses the timing controller 210 generates respective control signals 212 encoding commands or data for communicating to the zone ICs 120. In a display device, the control signals 212 may include, for example, values for driving pixels of the display device 100, timing for driving the pixels, commands for controlling operating parameters of the zone ICs 120, requests for feedback from the zone ICs 120 or other control information. The PLC drivers 220 each drive a group of zone ICs 120 coupled to one of the PLC lines 115 based on the respective control signals 212. The PLC drivers 220 encode the respective control signals 212 as a PLC signal that is output to respective PLC lines 115 by modulating the control signal 212 onto a supply voltage; see par 0066 as well);
Gray doesn’t expressly disclose wherein the PMU provides different power-supply voltages according to content of corresponding data to be displayed on the display panel; wherein the different power-supply voltages for the drivers are non-data-modulated direct-current (DC)supply voltages;
In the same field of endeavor, Park discloses display apparatus and driving method (see abstract); Park discloses wherein the PMU provides different power-supply voltages according to content of corresponding data to be displayed on the display panel; wherein the different power-supply voltages for the drivers are non-data-modulated direct-current (DC)supply voltages; (par 0235; discloses A DC voltage output from the power circuit may be input to the second micro-pixel controller 132, and the DC-DC converter 132DC of the second micro-pixel controller 132 may convert the input DC voltage to a power voltage, a reference voltage, or an operating voltage of a desired magnitude; par 0097; discloses The timing controller 500 may generate various control signals such as a timing control signal for converting the image data transmitted from the main controller 300 to image data having the form processable in a driver integrated circuit (IC) 200 (see FIG. 4) and displaying the image data on the display panel 100);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to modify the invention disclosed by Gray to incorporate the teachings of Park to include power supply with DC-DC converter to supply different voltages to the micro driver such that each micro-driver controls each micro-led to accurately to display the image;
Gray as modified by Park don’t expressly disclose the PMU dynamically provides power-supply voltages according to content of corresponding data to be displayed on the display panel;
In the same field of endeavor, Wang discloses load adaptive power management for display panel (see abstract); Wang discloses the PMU dynamically provides power-supply voltages according to content of corresponding data to be displayed on the display panel (par 0026; discloses During operation of the display panel, image data will be output from various pixels of the display panel using at least voltage or current provided by the power converter. Therefore, the load of the display panel will vary based on the image data that is to be output by the display panel. If the image data corresponds to an image that is brighter than previously output image data, then the power converter can increase the amount of voltage or current that the power converter is providing to the display panel or display driver. If the image data corresponds to an image that is less bright than previously output image data, then the power converter can decrease the amount of voltage or current that the power converter is providing to the display panel or display driver. As discussed herein, the power converter can increase or decrease the amount of voltage or current output from the power converter by increasing or decreasing the number of switches in the power converter that are actively toggling; par 0036; discloses the display controller 110 can direct the PMIC 108 to reconfigure the power converter 116 dynamically based on the image data received by the display controller 110 from the GPU 106. In this way, the efficiency of the power converter 116 can be shifted dynamically as the display panel 114 is displaying various different images over time. The shifting of the efficiency can be performed on a per frame basis, a per line basis, and/or a per pixel basis);
Therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to modify the invention disclosed by Gray as modified by Park to incorporate the teachings of Wang to dynamically adjust the power based on the image data such that the efficiency of the power converter can be shifted according to the command signal by optimizing the arrangement of the power converter based on the image data.
With respect to claim 2, Gray as modified by Park and Wang discloses wherein the PMU comprises: a power generator that generates the different power-supply voltages (Park; fig. 23; DC-DC converter; par 0235; discloses the DC-DC converter 132DC of the second micro-pixel controller 132 may convert the input DC voltage to a power voltage, a reference voltage, or an operating voltage of a desired magnitude).
With respect to claim 3, Gray as modified by Park and Wang discloses wherein the drivers of the display panel are arranged into groups (Gray; par 0034; discloses the zone ICs 120 may be arranged in groups that share a common PLC line 115. In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 1, each row of the display device corresponds to a group of zone ICs 120 that shares a common PLC line 115).
With respect to claim 4, Gray as modified by Park and Wang discloses wherein each power-supply voltage is determined according to total current required by a corresponding group of drivers during the line scan period or the frame scan period; such that a corresponding power-supply voltage with least value can afford the required total current for the corresponding group of drivers (Gray; par 0035; discloses the PLC drivers 220 each drive a group of zone ICs 120 coupled to one of the PLC lines 115 based on the respective control signals 212. The PLC drivers 220 encode the respective control signals 212 as a PLC signal that is output to respective PLC lines 115 by modulating the control signal 212 onto a supply voltage; par 0038; discloses the buffer circuit 224 comprises a wide bandwidth, slew rate controlled buffer that operates with unity gain and can both sink and source sufficient current to drive the group of zone ICs 120. In an embodiment, the sourcing function of the buffer circuit 224 may be larger than its sinking function to meet the DC power specifications of the group of zone ICs 120));
With respect to claim 9, Gray as modified by Park and Wang discloses wherein the drivers are grounded group by group respectively (Gray; par 0051; discloses the ground pin 628 is configured to provide a path to a ground line for the driver circuit 620, which may be common to the corresponding LED zone 630).
With respect to claim 10, Gray as modified by Park and Wang discloses wherein the drivers are grounded together (Gray; par 0050; discloses the GND lines provide a path to ground for the LED zones 630 and the driver circuits 620.).
With respect to claim 11, Gray as modified by Park and Wang discloses wherein the driver comprises: a first circuit that turns on at least one row of corresponding microLEDs at a time; and a second circuit that provides PWM data signals to the turned-on row of microLEDs (Gray; fig. 13; discloses drive circuit includes first circuit Demux and second circuit DC1; par 0084; discloses The driver circuit layer 1140 includes a plurality of driver circuits (e.g., DC1, DC2, . . . DCn) and a demultiplexer DeMux. The control signal instructs the demultiplexer DeMux which row or rows of LEDs are to be enabled and supplied with power using the VLED lines. Thus, a particular LED in the LED layer 1170 is activated when power (VLED) is supplied on its associated row and the driver current is supplied to its associated column); wherein a duty cycle of each PWM data signal is proportional to brightness of corresponding data to be displayed on the display panel (Gray; par 0071; discloses During the operational mode, the PWM clock selection signal PWMCLK_sel 1056 specifies a duty cycle for controlling PWM dimming by the PWM dimming circuit 1070. Based on the selected duty cycle, the PWM dimming circuit 1070 controls timing of an on-state and an off-state of the transistor 1075. During the on-state of the transistor 1075, a current path is established from the output pin 626 (coupled to the LED zones 630) to the ground pin 628 through the transistor 1075 and the brightness control circuit 1080 sinks the driver current through the LEDs of the LEDs zones 630. During an off-state of the transistor 1075, the current path is interrupted to block current from flowing through the LED zones 630. The brightness control circuit 1080 receives the maximum current signal Max. Current 358 from the control logic 1050 and controls the current level that flows through the LEDs (from the output pin 626 to the ground pin 628) when the transistor 1075 is in the on-state. During the operational mode, the control logic 1050 controls the duty cycle of the PWM dimming circuit 1070 and the maximum current Max. Current 1058 of the brightness control circuit 1080 to set the LED zones 630 to the desired brightness.).
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gray et al (US Pub 2021/0343231) in view of PARK et al (US Pub 2022/0172672), Wang et al (US Pub 2016/0358526) and Chou et al (US Pub 2023/0269845).
With respect to claim 5, Gray as modified by Park and Wang doesn’t expressly disclose wherein the timing controller determines the total current required by the corresponding group of drivers according to duty cycles of pulse-width modulation (PWM) data signals during the line scan period or the frame scan period;
In the same field of endeavor, Chou discloses display device and driving method (see abstract); Chou discloses determining the total current required by the corresponding group of drivers according to duty cycles of pulse-width modulation (PWM) data signals during the line scan period or the frame scan period (par 0050; discloses the average driving current is determined based on the duty cycle of the PWM signal and the magnitude of the input voltage. In an embodiment, the pulses of the PWM signal may be scrambled. Therefore, the pulses of multiple PWM signals for different current regulators are scattered with small variations, so that the loading of the power converter may be reduced and the EMI problem may be mitigated. In another embodiment, the duty cycle of the PWM signal may be well controlled and modified, and the value of the input voltage may be adjusted accordingly, to generate a target average driving current capable of generating desired brightness);
Therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to modify the invention disclosed by Gray as modified by Park and Wang to incorporate the teachings of Chou to update the PWM signal based on the target current in order to display image with desired brightness with larger degree of duty cycle adjustment.
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gray et al (US Pub 2021/0343231) in view of PARK et al (US Pub 2022/0172672), Wang et al (US Pub 2016/0358526) and Lee et al (US Pub 2016/0307490).
With respect to claim 8, Gray as modified by Park and Wang doesn’t expressly disclose wherein the timing controller determines the total current required by the corresponding group of drivers according to data signals, and each power-supply voltage of a corresponding group of drivers is determined according to the determined total current;
In the same field of endeavor, Lee discloses a display device and driving method thereof (see abstract); Lee discloses determining the total current required by the corresponding group of drivers according to data signals, (par 0068; discloses the target current determiner 400 can determine a magnitude of a target current ITARGET based on the input image data IDATA. Thus, the target current determiner 400 can determine the magnitude of the target current ITARGET to maintain a total amount of current flowing through the display panel 100) and each power-supply voltage of a corresponding group of drivers is determined according to the determined total current (par 0069; discloses the power supply 500 can adjust a voltage level of a power source to provide the power source corresponding to the target current ITARGET to the display panel 100 through a power line);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to modify the invention disclosed by Gray as modified Park and Wang to incorporate the teachings of Lee to update the voltage level based on the target current determined using the image data in order to maintain the total amount of current flowing thereby preventing the luminance degradation or luminance changing.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 6 would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims and when 112(a) rejections are overcome.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed with respect to claim 1 have been fully considered However they are not moot as they do not apply to new references being used in the current rejection.
Conclusion
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/SUJIT SHAH/Examiner, Art Unit 2624
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