DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
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.
Priority
The pending application 18/799,156, filed on 9 AUG 2024, claims priority from foreign application KR10-2024-0023634, filed on 19 FEB 2024 in the Republic of Korea.
Response to Amendment
Applicant's amendment filed on 23 JUL 2026 has been entered. Claims 1-3 and 6-7 have been amended. Claims 1-9 are still pending in this application, with claims 1 and 9 being independent.
Applicant’s amendments to the claims have overcome the rejection made under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) in the previous office action dated 29 APR 2026.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 23 JUL 2026 have been fully considered.
Regarding the Examiner’s rejection of claims 1-8 under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as unpatentable over Guo in view of Wu, the applicant argues that the cited reference fails to disclose all the features of the claimed invention, specifically “calculate, for each of a plurality of candidate physical arrays based on physical arrays of the plurality of transmit antennas and the plurality of receive antennas, a cost function based on phase differences between reflected signals corresponding to at least two pairs of virtual receive antennas that overlap with each other in a virtual antenna array generated based on the plurality of transmit antennas and the plurality of receive antennas, select a candidate physical array from among the plurality of candidate physical arrays based on the cost function, and obtain radar data corresponding to the target by matching frequency data of the reflected signal with the selected candidate physical array.” (Applicant’s remarks p. 9-11)
Applicant’s argument on this issue is persuasive and claims 1-8 are allowed.
Applicant further argues that because claim 9 depends from independent claim 1, claim 9 should be allowable. (Applicant’s remarks p. 11)
However, claim 9 is an independent claim and has not been amended to include the features argued above with respect to claim 1. Claim 9 is rejected under 102(a)(1) as be anticipated by Guo. The rejection relies upon the same reference and paragraphs, and does not constitute a new ground of rejection per MPEP 1207.03(a)(II)(2).
Claim Objections
Claims 1 and 6 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 1, line 2, “a radar device, comprising:” is repeated from line 1 and should be deleted.
In claim 6, lines 1-2, “wherein, in the estimating the the MMIC” should be “wherein the MMIC”
Appropriate correction is required.
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) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Guo et al. (CN 114706066 A, cited by applicant in IDS dated 21 APR 2025 and previously relied upon by the examiner).
Regarding claim 9 (Original), Guo et al. discloses:
A method of processing a radar signal, comprising:
transmitting a radar signal through a plurality of transmit antennas in accordance with a Doppler division multiple access (DDMA) (Guo et al. “The radar drives at least one pair of multiplexed array elements to periodically transmit pulse sequences toward the same moving target, wherein the transmitting antennas correspond to the multiplexed array elements have the same DDM coding channel, and transmit multiple DDM-coded pulses simultaneously in each pulse period of the pulse sequence.” - ¶ [0009]);
receiving a reflected signal, which is at least a part of the radar signal reflected from a target, through a plurality of receive antennas (Guo et al. “The echo signals received from the moving target by the two different channels corresponding to the pair of multiplexed array elements are obtained, and the measured phase difference between the echo signals corresponding to the pulses with the same DDM code in the two different channels is determined based on the echo signals.” - ¶ [0010]);
estimating a transmit antenna corresponding to the reflected signal among the plurality of transmit antennas based on a phase corresponding to the received reflected signal (Guo et al. “The echo signals received from the moving target by the two different channels corresponding to the pair of multiplexed array elements are obtained, and the measured phase difference between the echo signals corresponding to the pulses with the same DDM code in the two different channels is determined based on the echo signals.” - ¶ [0010]); and
obtaining radar data corresponding to the target based on the estimated transmit antenna and the reflected signal (Guo et al. “Based on the echo signal, range Doppler images corresponding to the two different channels are established respectively. Each range Doppler image contains the position of the moving target corresponding to the pulses encoded by the plurality of DDMs respectively.” - ¶ [0011]; “The position corresponding to the compensated inter-channel phase difference that is less than a preset threshold is determined as the true position of the moving target.” - ¶ [0014]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-8 are allowed.
The following is an examiner's statement of reasons for allowance:
Applicant teaches a radar device comprising a specific antenna/array matching architecture that includes the steps of “calculate, for each of a plurality of candidate physical arrays of the plurality of transmit antennas and the plurality of receive antennas, a cost function based on phase differences between reflected signals corresponding to at least two pairs of virtual receive antennas that overlap with each other in a virtual antenna array generated based on the plurality of transmit antennas and the plurality of receive antennas, select a candidate physical array from among the plurality of candidate physical arrays based on the cost function, and obtain radar data corresponding to the target by matching frequency data of the reflected signal with the selected candidate physical array.
Guo et al. (CN 114706066 A) discloses a radar device using doppler division multiplexing and determines the position of a target by compensating measured phase differences. Wu et al. (US 2022/0171049 A1) discloses a co-prime coded DDM MIMO radar However, the cited references fail to individually disclose, or suggest when combined, a radar device comprising a specific antenna/array matching architecture that includes the steps of “calculate, for each of a plurality of candidate physical arrays of the plurality of transmit antennas and the plurality of receive antennas, a cost function based on phase differences between reflected signals corresponding to at least two pairs of virtual receive antennas that overlap with each other in a virtual antenna array generated based on the plurality of transmit antennas and the plurality of receive antennas, select a candidate physical array from among the plurality of candidate physical arrays based on the cost function, and obtain radar data corresponding to the target by matching frequency data of the reflected signal with the selected candidate physical array.
No prior art was found teaching individually, or suggesting in combination, all of the features of the applicant’s invention, specifically a radar device comprising a specific antenna/array matching architecture that includes the steps of “calculate, for each of a plurality of candidate physical arrays of the plurality of transmit antennas and the plurality of receive antennas, a cost function based on phase differences between reflected signals corresponding to at least two pairs of virtual receive antennas that overlap with each other in a virtual antenna array generated based on the plurality of transmit antennas and the plurality of receive antennas, select a candidate physical array from among the plurality of candidate physical arrays based on the cost function, and obtain radar data corresponding to the target by matching frequency data of the reflected signal with the selected candidate physical array in combination with the recited limitations of the claimed invention.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NAOMI M WOLFORD whose telephone number is (571)272-3929. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:30 am - 4:30 pm EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Resha Desai can be reached at (571)270-7792. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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NAOMI M. WOLFORD
Examiner
Art Unit 3648
/N.M.W./Examiner, Art Unit 3648
5 OCT 2026
/RESHA DESAI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3648
