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 § 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) 18 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Jun (US 2019/0173454).
Regarding claim 18, fig. 1 of Jun discloses an apparatus comprising: a fractional-N phase-locked loop (PLL) [100] (par. 74) to generate an output signal [CLKo] having one of a plurality of output frequencies and the PLL is coupled to receive a reference clock signal [CLKi]; a pattern generator [200] to supply drive patterns to a multi-modulus divider [MMD of 100] of the PLL, each of the drive patterns corresponding to one of the output frequencies (fig. 3-5 shows various drive patterns with different boundary times); and wherein the pattern generator initiates supplying one of the respective drive patterns to the multi-modulus divider at a time offset from one of a plurality of boundary times [e.g. times when pattern crosses fcen], each of the boundary times separated from a previous boundary time by a boundary time interval corresponding to a predetermined number of reference clock cycles.
Regarding claim 20, fig. 1 of Jun discloses wherein initiating supplying one of the drive patterns at one of the boundary times results in the output signal having a known phase relationship with the reference clock signal (since 200 controls MMD, which then controls CLKo through feedback).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-17 are allowed.
Claim 19 is 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. Shu describes a fractional-N PLL based CDR with a low frequency reference. Huang describes a fractional-N PLL and charge pump control. Okada describes a digital PLL with a digital oscillator.
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/SIBIN CHEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2896
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