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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) filed on 8/1/24 is considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 objected to because of the following informalities:
In line 10, “the other surface” should read –the another surface– to remain consistent with the exact language provided earlier in the claim, to ensure antecedent basis for this limitation.
Appropriate correction is required.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the “ground conductor” and the “power supply point” must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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 1-2 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. (US Patent No. 7,952,526) in view of Yoshikawa et al. (WO-2020/090838-A1, machine translation provided by examiner).
Regarding claim 1, Lee et al. teaches (Fig. 1-14) an antenna comprising: a first substrate extending in a first plane direction (102, XY plane); a first conductor, a second conductor, a third conductor, and a fourth conductor that are disposed on one surface of the first substrate and extend in the first plane direction (108a-108d); a coupling conductor disposed on another surface of the first substrate (112a, 112b), the coupling conductor extending in the first plane direction (see Fig. 1, XY plane), the coupling conductor capacitively coupling the first conductor, the second conductor, the third conductor, and the fourth conductor (Col 6 lines 21-27); a second substrate (104) comprising a ground conductor (106), the second substrate comprising one surface facing the other surface of the first substrate (upper surface of 104 faces lower surface of 102), the second substrate extending in the first plane direction (XY); a first pin member configured to electromagnetically connect to the first conductor (110a); a second pin member configured to electromagnetically connect to the second conductor (110b); a third pin member configured to electromagnetically connect to the third conductor (110c); a fourth pin member configured to electromagnetically connect to the fourth conductor (110d).
Lee does not teach the second substrate comprising a power supply point, nor being separated from the first substrate in a first direction; nor a balun disposed on one surface of the second substrate to be electromagnetically connected to the power supply point.
Yoshikawa et al. teaches (Figs. 1-3) an antenna comprising: a first substrate (20) extending in a first plane direction (XY); a first conductor (30) that is disposed on one surface of the first substrate and extends in the first plane direction; a second substrate (60) comprising a ground conductor (60A) and a power supply point (40a), the second substrate being separated from the first substrate in a first direction (Z; see Fig. 2), the second substrate comprising one surface facing another surface of the first substrate (upper surface of 60 faces lower surface of 20), the second substrate extending in the first plane direction (XY); a first pin member configured to electromagnetically connect to the first conductor (53); and a balun disposed on one surface of the second substrate to be electromagnetically connected to the power supply point (63; see ¶34).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the antenna of Lee by forming the second substrate to be separated from the first substrate in a first direction, since it has been held that rearranging parts on an invention involves only routine skill in the art (In re Japikse, 86 USPQ 70) and further to include a power supply point, and a balun disposed on one surface of the second substrate to be electromagnetically connected to the power supply point, employing the teachings of Yoshikawa.
Doing so would provide the predictable benefit of controllably inverting the signal phase to the antenna conductors (see Yoshikawa, ¶34).
Regarding claim 2, Lee teaches the antenna according to claim 1.
Lee does not teach wherein the power supply point comprises a first power supply point and a second power supply point, and the balun comprises a first balun configured to be electromagnetically connected to the first power supply point and a second balun configured to be electromagnetically connected to the second power supply point.
Yoshikawa et al. teaches (Figs. 1-3) an antenna comprising: a first substrate (20) extending in a first plane direction (XY); a first conductor (30) that is disposed on one surface of the first substrate and extends in the first plane direction; a second substrate (60) comprising a ground conductor (60A) and a power supply point (40a), the second substrate being separated from the first substrate in a first direction (Z; see Fig. 2), the second substrate comprising one surface facing another surface of the first substrate (upper surface of 60 faces lower surface of 20), the second substrate extending in the first plane direction (XY); a first pin member configured to electromagnetically connect to the first conductor (51, 53); and a balun disposed on one surface of the second substrate to be electromagnetically connected to the power supply point (63; see ¶34), wherein the power supply point comprises a first power supply point and a second power supply point (see first 40a and second 40a; and Fig. 3, showing in a perpendicular cross section an additional two conductors to 51 and 53, being 52 and 54), and the balun comprises a first balun configured to be electromagnetically connected to the first power supply point and a second balun configured to be electromagnetically connected to the second power supply point (see Fig. 3, balun 63 connected to 51 and 53, balun 64 connected to 52 and 54; see ¶36).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the antenna of Lee such that the power supply point comprises a first power supply point and a second power supply point, and the balun comprises a first balun configured to be electromagnetically connected to the first power supply point and a second balun configured to be electromagnetically connected to the second power supply point, employing the teachings of Yoshikawa.
Doing so would provide the predictable benefit of controllably inverting the signal phase to the antenna conductors (see Yoshikawa, ¶36).
Regarding claim 6, Lee teaches the antenna according to claim 1.
Lee does not teach wherein the balun, the first pin member, the second pin member, the third pin member, and the fourth pin member are configured to be electromagnetically connected to each other by a wiring line formed on the second substrate.
Yoshikawa et al. teaches (Figs. 2, 12-13) an antenna comprising: a first substrate (120) extending in a first plane direction (XY); a first conductor thru fourth conductor (131, 132, 133, 134, see Fig. 11) that are disposed on one surface of the first substrate and extends in the first plane direction; a second substrate (360) comprising a ground conductor (140) and a power supply point (141, 142, 143, 144); a first thru fourth pin member configured to electromagnetically connect to the first thru fourth conductor, respectively (51; analogous to first through fourth pins 151, 152, 153, 154, see Fig. 11); and a balun disposed on one surface of the second substrate to be electromagnetically connected to the power supply point (63A and 64A; see ¶34); wherein the balun, the first pin member, the second pin member, the third pin member, and the fourth pin member are configured to be electromagnetically connected to each other by a wiring line formed on the second substrate (line comprising 361, 362, 363, 364; see Fig. 12).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the antenna of Lee such that the balun, the first pin member, the second pin member, the third pin member, and the fourth pin member are configured to be electromagnetically connected to each other by a wiring line formed on the second substrate, employing the teachings of Yoshikawa.
Doing so would provide the predictable benefit of electrically connecting the balun with the power supply points (see Yoshikawa, ¶96).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5 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.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for indicating allowable subject matter:
The pertinent prior art, as a whole, when taken alone, or in combination, cannot be reasonably construed as adequately teaching or suggesting the elements and features of the claimed invention as arranged, disposed, or provided in the manner as claimed by Applicant. In detail,
Regarding claim 3, the prior art does not teach or reasonably suggest, in combination with other claimed limitations, the limitation of “a first dummy balun and a second dummy balun on a front surface of the second substrate, wherein the first dummy balun and the second dummy balun are disposed at positions rotationally symmetric to the first balun and the second balun, respectively, with respect to a center of the second substrate in the first plane direction.”
Claims 4-5 are included for their dependency upon claim 3.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Kashino et al. (US PG Pub. No. 2015/0070235), Yoshikawa et al. (US PG Pub. No. 2021/0384634), Holland et al. (US Patent No. 8,325,093), and Holland et al. (US PG Pub. No. 2012/0146869) each teach multi substrate multi element balun or pin fed antennas.
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/DAMEON E LEVI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2845
/Jordan E. DeWitt/Examiner, Art Unit 2845