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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in GB and EP on 05/09/2022.
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 8-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 8 recites the limitation "wherein the piezoelectric layer is configured to produce the voltage output based on a charge resulting from the received mechanical strain" in lines 1-3 which renders the claim indefinite. It is not clear how this charge relates to the charge recited in claim 3, if they are the same or different charge. For the purpose of examination, Examiner interprets the claim as best understood.
Claim 9 inherits the indefiniteness of claim 8 and is subsequently rejected.
Claim 9 recites the limitation "w wherein the piezoelectric layer is configured to produce the voltage output when a charge resulting from the received mechanical strain" in lines 1-3 which renders the claim indefinite. It is not clear how this charge relates to the charge recited in claims 3 and 8, if they are the same or different charge. For the purpose of examination, Examiner interprets the claim as best understood.
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 1-4 and 7-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sepulveda et al, US-20210242606-A1 (hereinafter Sepulveda) in view of Yang et al, CN-106796984-A (hereinafter Yang) applied as a teaching reference.
Regarding claim 1, Sepulveda discloses the following:
an antenna comprising:
a magnetostrictive layer (magnetoelastic/magnetostrictive resonators 36a-36c, fig. 2) configured to, in receive mode, convert a magnetic field of a detected electromagnetic wave into mechanical strain (para [0032]); and
a piezoelectric layer (32) configured to, in receive mode, receive the mechanical strain from the magnetostrictive layer and produce a voltage output based thereon (para [0032]).
Although Sepulveda does not explicitly disclose wherein the piezoelectric layer comprises a memristive material, Sepulveda discloses the piezoelectric layer comprises Aluminum Nitride (para [0029]) which is a memristive material.
Yang applied as a teaching reference discloses Aluminum Nitride is a material of the memristor, i.e. memristive material (page 5, para 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the memristive material as taught in Yang to the antenna taught by Sepulveda as claimed for the purpose of storing data and remaining stable on a specified period of time in order to be programmed to different states depending on the requirements of the application (Yang, page 2, Background Technology).
Examiner’s note - Regarding the recitation that an element is “configured to” perform a function, it is the position of the office that such limitations are not positive structural limitations, and thus, only require the ability to so perform. In this case the prior art applied herein is construed as at least possessing such ability.
Regarding claim 2, Sepulveda discloses wherein, in transmit mode, the piezoelectric layer (32, fig. 2) is configured to receive a voltage input and produce mechanical strain based thereon (para [0033]), and the magnetostrictive layer is configured to receive the mechanical strain produced by the piezoelectric layer to produce and output an electromagnetic wave based thereon (para [0033]).
Examiner’s note - Regarding the recitation that an element is “configured to” perform a function, it is the position of the office that such limitations are not positive structural limitations, and thus, only require the ability to so perform. In this case the prior art applied herein is construed as at least possessing such ability.
Regarding claim 3, Sepulveda discloses wherein the piezoelectric layer is arranged to be set to a defined condition by application of a voltage and/or charge (para [0033]: a piezoelectric substrate transduces the applied voltage changes into a shear wave or other potential mechanical wave, it is implied that the condition of the piezoelectric layer would be changed to a defined condition to transduce the applied voltage into mechanical strain).
Regarding claim 4, Sepulveda discloses wherein the piezoelectric layer is arranged to be set to the defined condition prior to a receiving and/or transmitting operation of the antenna being performed (para [0033]: (1) voltage is applied to an optimized electrode design; (2) a piezoelectric substrate transduces the applied voltage changes into a shear wave or other potential mechanical wave, at this stage the piezoelectric layer is set to the defined condition but the mechanical waves in the piezoelectric substrate has not reached the magnetostrictive layer, therefore it is before transmitting operation of the antenna being performed).
Regarding claim 7, although Sepulveda does not explicitly disclose wherein the piezoelectric layer is configured to retain the defined condition after the application of the voltage, Sepulveda discloses the piezoelectric layer comprises Aluminum Nitride (para [0029]) which is a memristive material.
Yang applied as a teaching reference discloses the characteristic of the memristive material is storing data and remaining stable on a specified period of time (page 2, Background Technology).
Therefore, it is implied that the piezoelectric layer taught in Sepulveda can retain the defined condition after the application of the voltage.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the piezoelectric layer taught by Sepulveda to retain the defined condition after the application of the voltage as claimed for the purpose of storing data and remaining stable on a specified period of time in order to be programmed to different states depending on the requirements of the application (Yang, page 2, Background Technology)
Examiner’s note - Regarding the recitation that an element is “configured to” perform a function, it is the position of the office that such limitations are not positive structural limitations, and thus, only require the ability to so perform. In this case the prior art applied herein is construed as at least possessing such ability.
Regarding claim 8, as best understood, Sepulveda discloses wherein the piezoelectric layer (32, fig. 2) is configured to produce the voltage output based on a charge resulting from the received mechanical strain and the defined condition of the piezoelectric layer (para [0032]).
Examiner’s note - Regarding the recitation that an element is “configured to” perform a function, it is the position of the office that such limitations are not positive structural limitations, and thus, only require the ability to so perform. In this case the prior art applied herein is construed as at least possessing such ability.
Regarding claim 9, as best understood, Sepulveda discloses wherein the piezoelectric layer is configured to produce the voltage output when a charge resulting from the received mechanical strain is equal to a threshold value defined based on the set defined condition of the piezoelectric layer (para [0032]).
Examiner’s note - Regarding the recitation that an element is “configured to” perform a function, it is the position of the office that such limitations are not positive structural limitations, and thus, only require the ability to so perform. In this case the prior art applied herein is construed as at least possessing such ability.
Regarding claim 10, Sepulveda discloses wherein the memristive material comprises annealed aluminium nitride, AIN (para [0029]).
Regarding claim 11, Sepulveda discloses the following:
an antenna array comprising a plurality of antennas according to claim 1 (fig. 12, para [0074]: RF Out 280 and 282 are connected to different antennas).
Regarding claim 12, Sepulveda discloses wherein each one of the plurality of antennas is arranged to individually be set to a defined condition by application of a voltage (fig. 12, para [0074]: RF Out 280 and 282 are connected to different antennas operating at different frequency ranges with control voltage 274, 276 and the RF voltage 278 carries the information for different frequencies).
Regarding claim 13, Sepulveda discloses the following:
a method of manufacturing an antenna, comprising:
providing a piezoelectric layer (32, fig. 2); and
providing a magnetostrictive layer (magnetoelastic/magnetostrictive resonators 36a-36c) disposed on the piezoelectric layer (fig. 2).
Although Sepulveda does not explicitly disclose wherein the piezoelectric layer comprising a memristive material, Sepulveda discloses the piezoelectric layer comprises Aluminum Nitride (para [0029]) which is a memristive material.
Yang applied as a teaching reference discloses Aluminum Nitride is a material of the memristor, i.e. memristive material (page 5, para 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the memristive material as taught in Yang to the antenna taught by Sepulveda as claimed for the purpose of storing data and remaining stable on a specified period of time in order to be programmed to different states depending on the requirements of the application (Yang, page 2, Background Technology).
Regarding claim 14, Sepulveda discloses the method according to claim 13, further comprising the step of providing annealed aluminium nitride, AIN, as the memristive material (para [0029]).
Claims 5-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sepulveda in view of Yang as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of Stevens et al, US-8872246-B1 (hereinafter Stevens).
Regarding claim 5, although the combination of Sepulveda and Yang does not explicitly disclose wherein setting the piezoelectric layer to the defined condition comprises varying a conductance of the piezoelectric layer by application of the voltage, Sepulveda discloses the piezoelectric substrate transduces the applied voltage changes into a shear wave or other potential mechanical wave (para [0033]) and the piezoelectric layer comprises Aluminum Nitride (para [0029]) which is a memristive material.
Stevens applied as a teaching reference discloses the memristive material can switch between a high-conductance state and a low-conductance state when there is an applied voltage of sufficient magnitude (col. 1, lines 26-34) and the Aluminum Nitride could perform the conductance switching (col. 2, lines 19-23).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to vary a conductance of the piezoelectric layer as suggested in Stevens to the antenna taught in Sepulveda and Yang as claimed for the purpose of modifying the conductivity of the piezoelectric layer in order to achieve the desired oscillation of the mechanical waves which would generate a desired electromagnetic waves.
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Sepulveda and Yang does not disclose wherein the conductance of the piezoelectric layer is varied based on at least one of a frequency of the applied voltage and polarity of the applied voltage.
Stevens suggests wherein the conductance of the piezoelectric layer is varied based on at least one of a frequency of the applied voltage and polarity of the applied voltage (col. 4, lines 15-21: the current would be changed when changing the polarity of the applied voltage which would change the conductance).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to vary the polarity of the applied voltage as suggested in Stevens to the antenna taught in Sepulveda and Yang as claimed for the purpose of modifying the conductance of the piezoelectric layer in order to achieve the desired oscillation of the mechanical waves which would generate a desired electromagnetic waves.
Citation of Pertinent Art
Miller et al, US-8803751-B1 – an antenna comprising a magnetostrictive layer and a piezoelectric layer
Sun et al, US-20220038074-A1 – an antenna comprising a magnetostrictive layer and a piezoelectric layer
Huang et al, CN-113964492-A – an antenna comprising a magnetostrictive layer and a piezoelectric layer
Conclusion
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/DAMEON E LEVI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2845
/ANH N HO/Examiner, Art Unit 2845