DETAILED ACTION
Specification
The application has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible typographical and grammatical errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which he/she may become aware in the application.
The Information Disclosure Statements filed 08/05/2024 and 02/20/2025 have been considered.
Objection to the Claims
Claims 1-12 are objected to because of the following informality: the term “resister” needs to be corrected to read -- resistor --
Objection to the Specification
The specification is objected to because of the following informality: the term “resister” needs to be corrected to read -- resistor --
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, 6, 7 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Devarajan (US 9, 793,910) in view of Hsu (US 2006/0262827).
Regarding claim 1, Devarajan teaches in figure (4) a system comprising: a plurality of devices (ADC_0), (ADC_1), (ADC_2) of a circuit for performing a function associated with the circuit; and a temperature compensation module (406; See column 6: lines 56-67) for receiving one or more temperature signals from a temperature sensor module (408; See column 6: lines 65-67) that senses a temperature value associated with the circuit and uses the temperature value to compensate for any changes in a device voltage threshold of at least one device of the plurality of devices causing related changes in performing the function associated with the circuit caused by changes in temperature. Devarajan does not teach a system wherein adjustments are made to a source resistor of one or more of the plurality of devices to compensate for temperature changes. However, as evidenced by Hsu, this scheme is well-known in the art. Hsu
teaches a temperature sensor wherein programmable resistors are used to compensate for temperature changes (See abstract). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Hsu into the system of Devarajan to realize a converter having improved performance and reliability because that would yield to a temperature sensor having
easy and efficient programming with low demand on valuable chip real estate (See paragraph [0012]).
Regarding claim 7, Devarajan teaches in figure (4) a system comprising: a plurality of devices (ADC_0), (ADC_1), (ADC_2) of a circuit for performing a function associated with the circuit; and a voltage compensation module (406; See column 6: lines 56-67) for receiving one or more voltage signals from a core voltage sensor module (408; See column 6: lines 65-67) that senses core voltage values and uses the one or more core voltage values to compensate for any changes in a device voltage threshold (characteristic of the analog input signal; See column 7: lines 1-3) causing related changes in performing the function associated with the circuit caused by a change in core voltage. Devarajan does not teach a system wherein adjustments are made to a source resistor of one or more of the plurality of devices to compensate for the change in core voltage. However, as evidenced by Hsu, this scheme is well-known in the art. Hsu teaches a temperature sensor wherein programmable resistors are used to compensate for temperature (voltage) changes (See abstract). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Hsu into the system of Devarajan to realize a converter having improved performance and reliability because that would yield to a temperature sensor having easy and efficient programming with low demand on valuable chip real estate (See paragraph [0012]).
Regarding claims 6 and 12, the combination of Devarajan and Hsu teaches the essential features of the claimed invention as set forth above, except for a resistor adjusting circuit to adjust a resistance value. However, this limitation is inherent in Hsu. Hsu teaches adjusting a resistance value, as stated above. That implies the presence of a circuit to perform the adjustment.
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Devarajan (US 9, 793,910) in view of Caliboso (US 2008/0165823).
Regarding claim 16, Devarajan teaches in figure (4) a method of temperature compensation in a circuit comprising: performing analog to digital conversion by a plurality of devices (ADC_0), (ADC_1), (ADC_2) of a circuit; obtaining a temperature signal and/or a voltage signal from at least one sensor module (408) that senses a temperature value and/or a voltage value. Devarajan does not teach providing by a compensation module a digital offset value using the temperature value and/or the voltage value, wherein the digital offset value is added or subtracted from an unadjusted digital output value of the circuit to compensate for a change in the
temperature and/or the voltage that occurs during system operation.
Caliboso teaches in figure (6) a temperature sensor method, the method comprising: providing by a compensation module a digital offset value using the temperature value and/or the voltage value, wherein the digital offset value is added or subtracted from an unadjusted digital output value of the circuit to compensate for a change in the temperature and/or the voltage that occurs during system operation (See abstract). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Caliboso into the system of Devarajan to achieve a temperature sensor having improved performance and reliability because digital representation of the measured temperatures would track more linearly (See abstract).
Claims 2 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Devarajan (US 9, 793,910) in view of Hsu (US 2006/0262827) and further in view of Rothberg et al (US 8,415,716).
Regarding claims 2 and 8, the combination of Devarajan and Hsu teaches the essential features of the claimed invention, as set forth above, except for the resistor being a MOS device. However, the benefits of using a MOS device as a resistor, are well-known in the art. Rothberg teaches a sensor device wherein a MOS device is used as a resistor to improve measurements accuracy (See column 24: lines 5-16). It would have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Rothberg into the combination of Devarajan and Hsu to achieve a system having improved performance and reliability because that would appreciably mitigate measurement offsets (See column 24: lines 17-19).
Claims 3 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Devarajan (US 9, 793,910) in view of Hsu (US 2006/0262827) and further in view of Cho et al (US 2010/0118593).
Regarding claims 3 and 9, the combination of Devarajan and Hsu teaches the essential features of the claimed invention as set forth above, except for the resistor being a phase-change element. However, as evidenced by Cho et al, this limitation is well-known in the art. Cho et al teach a variable resistance system wherein variable resistors include phase-change elements (See paragraphs [0052], [0059], [0064]). It
would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Cho et al into the combination of Devarajan and Hsu to realize circuit having improved performance and reliability because that would reduce power consumption (See paragraph [0223]).
Claims 4 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Devarajan (US 9, 793,910) in view of Hsu (US 2006/0262827) and further in view Immink (WO-2007113724-A2).
Regarding claims 4 and 10, the combination of Devarajan and Hsu teaches the essential features of the claimed invention as set forth above, except for the resistor being a magneto-resistive element. However, as evidenced by Immink, this limitation is well-known in the art. Immink teaches a temperature sensor wherein a magneto-resistive element is used as a resistor for temperature compensation (See abstract; See page 3,1st paragraph). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Immink into the combination of Devarajan and Hsu to realize circuit having improved performance and reliability because that would improve the accuracy of detection (See end of page 9).
Claims 5 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Devarajan (US 9, 793,910) in view of Hsu (US 2006/0262827) and further in view of Higashitani et al (US 2014/0126286).
Regarding claims 5 and 11, the combination of Devarajan and Hsu teaches the essential features of the claimed invention as set forth above, except for the resistor value to be changed by trapped charge. However, as evidenced by Higashitani et al, this limitation is well-known in the art. Higashitani et al teach a semiconductor device wherein a resistance value is changed by trapped charge (See Paragraph [0077]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Higashitani et al into the combination of Devarajan and Hsu to realize circuit having improved performance and reliability because that would improve endurance of the system (See abstract).
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Devarajan (US 9, 793,910) in view of Caliboso (US 2008/0165823) and further in view of Wagh et al (US 8,437,343).
Regarding claim 19, the combination of Devarajan and Caliboso teaches the essential features of the claimed invention, as set forth above, except for performing communications over a communications link by the circuit, wherein link training is performed by the circuit. However, as evidenced by Wagh et al, the transmission of temperature data over communication links, preceded by a link training is well known in the art. Wagh et al teach an optimized link training system and method, the method comprising performing communications over a communications link using a transceiver (See column 8: lines 2-5; a transceiver implies a communications link) and performing a link training (See column 12: lines 41-42). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Wagh et al into the combination of Devarajan and Caliboso to achieve a temperature sensor having improved performance and reliability because that would help to reduce power consumption (See column 14: lines 30-33).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 13-15 are allowable.
Claims 17, 18 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSEPH J LAUTURE whose telephone number is (571)272-1805. The examiner can normally be reached 9:30 AM-6:00 PM.
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/JOSEPH J LAUTURE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845