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, 3, and 10-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abdo (US 9,589,236), in view of Ohashi et al. (US 2015/0263406).
In regard to Claim 1:
Abdo discloses, in Figure 4A, a quantum computing apparatus comprising: one or more frequency sources (470); a dilution refrigerator (491); a quantum processor (405); a directional coupler (488); and a filter (493), wherein the quantum processor (405), the directional coupler (488), and the filter (493) are disposed within or in thermal equilibrium with a mixing chamber of the dilution refrigerator (491, Column 14: lines 51-62), and wherein the one or more frequency sources (470) are connected to the quantum processor (405) via the apparatus (498), but does not disclose an absorptive low pass filter.
Ohashi discloses, in Figure 12, an absorptive low pass filter (30).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to use the low pass filter taught by Ohashi with the filter taught by Abdo, in order to allow for suppression of changes in the power of the coupling signal or changes in the coupling of the directional coupler 1 with increases in the frequency of the high frequency signal (Ohashi Paragraph 0054).
In regard to Claim 3:
Abdo further discloses, in Figure 4A, the quantum computing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the directional coupler comprises a stripline directional coupler (Column 12: lines 26-29).
In regard to Claim 10:
Abdo further discloses, in Figure 4A, the quantum computing apparatus of claim 1, comprising: an enclosure (491, enclosure of the dilution refrigerator), wherein the directional coupler (488) and the absorptive low pass filter (493) are embedded in the enclosure (Column 13: lines 17-25); and a first connector and a second connector connected to a first port and a third port of the directional coupler (488), respectively, for connecting to a printed circuit board (PCB) (Column 13: lines 9-16).
In regard to Claim 11:
All of the claim limitations have been discussed with respect to Claims 1 and 10 above, except for wherein the enclosure has a thermal conductivity larger than 10-5 W/m/K. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to have an enclosure has a thermal conductivity larger than 10-5 W/m/K, since it has been held that discovering an optimum value of a result effective variable involves only routine skill in the art. In re Boesch, 617 F.2d 272, 205 USPQ 215 (CCPA 1980). Further it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to have an enclosure has a thermal conductivity larger than 10-5 W/m/K, in order to allow for a continuous refrigeration method to reach temperatures below 0.3 K (Abdo Column 13: lines 17-25).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 4-9 and 12-16 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.
Ashida et al. (US 2017/0040661) discloses a directional coupler includes: a first to a fourth port; a main line connecting the first and second ports; a first to a fourth subline section electromagnetically coupled to the main line; a first to a third matching section; and a stack. The first subline, first matching, third subline, third matching, fourth subline, second matching, and second subline sections are arranged in this order between the third and fourth port. The first and second matching sections include an inductor connecting two subline sections located on opposite sides of the matching section. Each of one or more conductor layers used to form the inductor includes two connection portions for electrical connection to respective other elements, and a line portion connecting the two connection portions. The inductor excluding the connection portions does not include portions that overlap each other when viewed in the stacking direction of the stack.
Uzawa et al. (US 2019/0097117) discloses Aa low-noise wide band amplifier is realized utilizing a superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) junction, quasiparticle frequency mixers connected in tandem or in cascade, a first quasiparticle mixer performs first frequency mixing with use of a first local signal having a frequency not less than twice a frequency of an input signal to the first quasiparticle mixer, a second quasiparticle mixer performs second frequency mixing with use of a second local signal having a frequency not more than twice a frequency of an input signal to the second quasiparticle mixer, and signal amplification is performed through frequency conversion by extracting, from among a plurality of signals generated with the first and the second frequency mixing, a signal in a frequency band not more than a frequency band of the signal before the first frequency mixing and the second frequency mixing, using a transmission line or a filter.
Abdo (US 10,164,724) discloses a superconducting microwave combiner. A first filter through a last filter connects to a first input through a last input, respectively. The first filter through the last filter each has a first passband through a last passband, respectively, such that the first passband through the last passband are each different. A common output is connected to the first input through the last input via the first filter through the last filter.
Abdo et al. (US 9,735,776) discloses qubit drive and readout. A first lossless microwave switch is connected to a quantum system. A second lossless microwave switch is connectable to the first lossless microwave switch. A quantum-limited amplifier is connectable to the second lossless microwave switch.
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.
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/JOHN W POOS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2896