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
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 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.
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 of this title, 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.
Claim(s) 1-11 and 13-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SHEN et al. (CN 214669327; hereinafter SHEN) in view of LIU et al. (CN 201589796).
Regarding claim 1, SHEN teaches in figure(s) 1-3 a test system (abs.; figs. 1-3) for a vehicle-mounted antenna, comprising:
an anechoic chamber (dark chamber 100 is a shielded chamber with an inner wall provided with a wave absorbing material; figs. 1-3), a lifting table (200, 201), at least one measuring antenna (301), and a reflecting plate, wherein the anechoic chamber is configured to provide a full anechoic chamber test environment or a semi-anechoic chamber test environment (pg. 2 - test environment is a full-wave darkroom, EMC darkroom, or a field provided with a wave-absorbing screen);
the lifting table is fixedly arranged in the anechoic chamber, and configured to carry a full vehicle to be tested with the vehicle-mounted antenna and to drive the full vehicle to be tested to reach a preset height (pg. 4 - a lifting mechanism 201 for driving the measured piece 900 to move up and down. In this embodiment, the measured piece 900 is an intelligent network-connected vehicle; clm. 4);
the at least one measuring antenna is configured to communicate with the vehicle-mounted antenna, so as to obtain a wireless performance of the vehicle-mounted antenna (pg. 5 - tester 600 is electrically connected with the first test antenna 301 and the second test antenna 401, for establishing a wireless connection with the measured piece 900, and obtaining the wireless performance of the measured piece 900); and
SHEN does not teach explicitly the reflecting plate is detachably connected to a bearing surface of the lifting table carrying the full vehicle to be tested, or the reflecting plate is integrally arranged with the bearing surface, wherein when the reflecting plate is integrally arranged with the bearing surface, the reflecting plate can extend and retract from the bearing surface, and the reflecting plate is configured to reflect electromagnetic waves.
However, LIU teaches in figure(s) 1-3 the reflecting plate is detachably connected to a bearing surface of the lifting table carrying the full vehicle to be tested, or the reflecting plate is integrally arranged with the bearing surface, wherein when the reflecting plate is integrally arranged with the bearing surface, the reflecting plate can extend and retract from the bearing surface, and the reflecting plate is configured to reflect electromagnetic waves (para. 41-43 - reflection of electromagnetic waves by switching the exposed reflective plate, enabling switching of full and half wave dark chambers … moving the wave absorbing unit 3 into the wave absorbing unit placement area in the direction of the drawing arrow A, to shield the floor area between the device 2 under test and the antenna 114, to achieve the test environment requirement criteria required by a full electromagnetic wave dark room, to build a semi-electromagnetic wave dark chamber, as shown in Figure 3, the mobile wave absorbing unit 3' can be moved away from the region where the wave absorbing unit is placed in the direction B of the drawing arrow, such that the mobile wave absorbing unit 3' is completely out of the wave absorbing unit placement area, to expose the floor 11 as a reflective ground plate, to achieve the required test environment requirements for a semi-electromagnetic wave dark room; figs. 1-3).
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 teachings of SHEN by having the reflecting plate is detachably connected to a bearing surface of the lifting table carrying the full vehicle to be tested, or the reflecting plate is integrally arranged with the bearing surface, wherein when the reflecting plate is integrally arranged with the bearing surface, the reflecting plate can extend and retract from the bearing surface, and the reflecting plate is configured to reflect electromagnetic waves as taught by LIU in order to provide an adjustable reflecting plate and mounting the reflecting plate to construct a semi-anechoic chamber or removing the reflecting plate to construct a fully-anechoic chamber as evidenced by "Such a design not only saves the cost of building two different darkrooms separately in the prior art, but also avoids a large amount of manpower and time costs caused by modifying the darkroom, and at the same time makes the test environment parameters consistent to ensure the stability of the test." (abstract).
Regarding claim 2, SHEN in view of LIU the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim 1,
LIU additionally teaches in figure(s) 1-3 wherein when the reflecting plate is detachably connected to the bearing surface of the lifting table carrying the full vehicle to be tested, the reflecting plate is mounted on the bearing surface under a semi- anechoic chamber test, and the reflecting plate is disassembled from the bearing surface under a full anechoic chamber test (paras. 41-42 :- building a full electromagnetic wave darkroom, it can as shown in FIG. 1, the 3 - type arrow direction A of the mobile microwave absorbing unit pushing to the microwave absorbing unit is placed in a region so as to shield the measuring device 2 and the antenna 114 of the floor area, so as to achieve the full electromagnetic wave darkroom testing environment requirement standard. constructing a half-wave darkroom, shown in FIG. 3, the mobile microwave absorbing unit 3 ' placing area in the pattern direction of the arrow B, to the mobile microwave absorbing unit 3 completely exits the microwave absorbing unit placement region, to expose the floor reflection grounding plate 11, so as to achieve electromagnetic wave darkroom testing environment).
Regarding claim 3, SHEN in view of LIU the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim 1,
LIU additionally teaches in figure(s) 1-3 the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim 1, wherein when the reflecting plate is integrally arranged with the bearing surface, the reflecting plate extends from the bearing surface under a semi-anechoic chamber test, and the reflecting plate retracts into the bearing surface under a full anechoic chamber test (para. 43 - microwave absorbing unit set can be conveniently pushed in the testing chamber, to provide a full electromagnetic wave dark environment or half-wave dark environment).
Regarding claim 4, SHEN teaches in figure(s) 1-3 the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim 1, wherein a boundary of an orthogonal projection of the lifting table does not exceed a boundary of an orthogonal projection of the full vehicle to be tested (pg. 3; figs. 1-2).
Regarding claim 5, SHEN teaches in figure(s) 1-3 the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim 1, wherein the lifting table is further configured to drive the full vehicle to be tested to rotate (turntable 200; figs. 1-2) in a horizontal plane at the preset height.
Regarding claim 6, SHEN teaches in figure(s) 1-3 the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim 5, wherein the lifting table comprises: a turntable (200), a lifting machine (201) fixedly arranged above the turntable, and the bearing surface fixedly connected to the lifting machine (pg. 3 - turntable is used for bearing the tested piece and driving the tested piece to rotate in the horizontal direction); or a lifting table body, a rotation machine built in the lifting table body, and a lifting machine built in the lifting table body, wherein the lifting table body is the bearing surface.
Regarding claim(s) 7 and 19, SHEN teaches in figure(s) 1-3 the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim(s) 5 and 6, respectively, wherein one or a plurality of measuring antennas (301, 401, 403, 500) are provided; and the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna further comprises a scanning mechanism, wherein the scanning mechanism is configured to fixedly mount one or the plurality of measuring antennas and to drive the measuring antennas to move in a circular arc shape in a vertical direction (pg. 4 - turntable 200 to realize the spherical scanning test of the DUT 900), so that the measuring antennas scan and communicate with the vehicle-mounted antenna in a circular arc-shaped track, so as to cooperate with a rotation of the lifting table to perform a spherical scanning test for the vehicle-mounted antenna (pg. 4 - scanning mechanism is used to drive the first test antenna to make a circular arc motion in the vertical direction to coordinate the rotation of the turntable to perform a spherical scan on the DUT Testing; The mechanical arm includes at least two, and each mechanical arm is equipped with a second test antenna, and the mechanical arm is used to drive the second test antenna to the preset test point of the DUT).
Regarding claim 8, SHEN teaches in figure(s) 1-3 the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim 7, wherein the scanning mechanism comprises any one of a circular arc-shaped rail, a rocker arm, or an industrial robotic arm (slide rail 300, mechanical arms 400).
Regarding claim 9, SHEN teaches in figure(s) 1-3 the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim 5, wherein a plurality of measuring antennas are provided (301, 401, 403, 500); and the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna can further comprise a scanning mechanism, wherein the scanning mechanism is configured to fixedly mount the plurality of measuring antennas, so that the plurality of measuring antennas are distributed in a circular arc in a spatial position (pg. 4 - turntable 200 to realize the spherical scanning test of the DUT 900), so that the measuring antennas carry out a scanning communication for the vehicle- mounted antenna in a circular arc-shaped track, so as to cooperate with a rotation of the lifting table to perform a spherical scanning test for the vehicle-mounted antenna (pg. 4 - scanning mechanism is used to drive the first test antenna to make a circular arc motion in the vertical direction to coordinate the rotation of the turntable to perform a spherical scan on the DUT Testing; The robotic arm includes at least two, and each robotic arm is equipped with a second test antenna, and the robotic arm is used to drive the second test antenna to the preset test point of the DUT).
Regarding claim 10, SHEN teaches in figure(s) 1-3 the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim 1, wherein when the reflecting plate is detachably connected to the bearing surface, a form of the reflecting plate comprises any one of a form of an integral arrangement, and a form of splicing by multiple sub-reflecting plates (clm. 2 - mechanical arm comprises at least three, wherein at least two of the mechanical arm is equipped with the second test antenna, at least two of the mechanical arm is used for driving the second test antenna to reach the preset test point of the tested piece; at least one of the mechanical arm is equipped with a radar angle reflector or radar echo simulator; at least one of the mechanical arm is used for driving the radar angle reflector or radar echo simulator to reach the preset position).
Regarding claim 11, SHEN teaches in figure(s) 1-3 the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim 1, wherein when the reflecting plate is detachably connected to the bearing surface, the reflecting plate is detachably connected to an upper surface of the bearing surface, or the reflecting plate is detachably connected to a side surface of the bearing surface (clm. 2 - mechanical arm comprises at least three, wherein at least two of the mechanical arm is equipped with the second test antenna, at least two of the mechanical arm is used for driving the second test antenna to reach the preset test point of the tested piece; at least one of the mechanical arm is equipped with a radar angle reflector or radar echo simulator; at least one of the mechanical arm is used for driving the radar angle reflector or radar echo simulator to reach the preset position).
Regarding claim 13, SHEN teaches in figure(s) 1-3 the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim 1, wherein a material of the reflecting plate comprises at least one of a metal (pg. 5 – metal surface of the mechanical arm 400), carbon fiber, and a composite material.
Regarding claim 14, SHEN teaches in figure(s) 1-3 the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim 1, wherein one or a plurality of reflecting plates are provided, wherein when the plurality of reflecting plates are provided, the plurality of reflecting plates have different electromagnetic parameters for simulating different road surfaces (pg. 5 - the sampling test of the electromagnetic parameters of the upper hemisphere of the tested part… two robot arms 400 control the second test antenna 401 to reach different test points respectively.).
Regarding claim 15, SHEN in view of LIU teaches the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim 1,
LIU additionally teaches in figure(s) 1-3 wherein the anechoic chamber comprises: a shielding body (para. 41-43 - mobile absorbing unit 3 can be moved in the direction of the arrow A in the figure to the absorbing unit placement area to shield the floor area between the device under test 2 and the antenna 114 , thereby meeting the test environment requirement standards required by the full electromagnetic wave anechoic chamber) and an absorbing material (absorbing material 13, 31), wherein the absorbing material is distributed throughout all inner walls of the shielding body when the anechoic chamber provides the full anechoic chamber test environment; and the absorbing material is arranged at least on an upper inner wall and a side inner wall of the shielding body when the anechoic chamber provides the semi-anechoic chamber test environment (para. 2 - fully anechoic chamber means that all surfaces in the anechoic chamber are installed with absorbing materials, while the semi-anechoic chamber means that except for the reflective grounding plate installed on the ground in the anechoic chamber, all other surfaces are installed with absorbing materials).
Regarding claim 16, SHEN teaches in figure(s) 1-3 the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim 15, wherein the shielding body is made of a metal plate for shielding external electromagnetic waves (pg. 5 - absorbing material 403 for shielding can also be directly disposed on the metal surface of the mechanical arm 400).
Regarding claim 17, SHEN teaches in figure(s) 1-3 the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim 2, wherein a boundary of an orthogonal projection of the lifting table does not exceed a boundary of an orthogonal projection of the full vehicle to be tested (pg. 3; figs. 1-2).
Regarding claim 18, SHEN in view of LIU teaches in figure(s) 1-3 the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim 2, wherein the lifting table is further configured to drive the full vehicle to be tested to rotate (turntable 200; figs. 1-2) in a horizontal plane at the preset height.
Regarding claim 20, SHEN teaches in figure(s) 1-3 the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim 6, wherein a plurality of measuring antennas are provided (301, 401, 403, 500); and the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna can further comprise a scanning mechanism, wherein the scanning mechanism is configured to fixedly mount the plurality of measuring antennas, so that the plurality of measuring antennas are distributed in a circular arc in a spatial position (pg. 4 - turntable 200 to realize the spherical scanning test of the DUT 900), so that the measuring antennas carry out a scanning communication for the vehicle- mounted antenna in a circular arc-shaped track, so as to cooperate with a rotation of the lifting table to perform a spherical scanning test for the vehicle-mounted antenna (pg. 4 - scanning mechanism is used to drive the first test antenna to make a circular arc motion in the vertical direction to coordinate the rotation of the turntable to perform a spherical scan on the DUT Testing; The mechanical arm includes at least two, and each mechanical arm is equipped with a second test antenna, and the mechanical arm is used to drive the second test antenna to the preset test point of the DUT).
Claim(s) 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SHEN in view of LIU, and further in view of Bongfeldt et al. (US 8965276).
Regarding claim 12, SHEN in view of LIU teaches the test system for the vehicle-mounted antenna according to claim 1,
SHEN does not teach explicitly wherein an area of the reflecting plate extends outwardly from an outer boundary of an orthogonal projection of the full vehicle to be tested by a distance of at least three times the target wavelengths, wherein the target wavelength is a wavelength corresponding to a lowest operating frequency of the vehicle-mounted antenna.
However, Bongfeldt teaches in figure(s) 1-22 wherein an area of the reflecting plate extends outwardly from an outer boundary of an orthogonal projection of the full vehicle to be tested by a distance of at least three times the target wavelengths, wherein the target wavelength is a wavelength corresponding to a lowest operating frequency of the vehicle-mounted antenna (col. 4 lines 15-25 :- minimum frequency is determined as that for which the ratio l/λ is in the range 2.5 to 4, for example 3 to 3.5, where l is the length of the vehicle (or support) and λ is the wavelength of the RF signal.).
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 teachings of SHEN by having wherein an area of the reflecting plate extends outwardly from an outer boundary of an orthogonal projection of the full vehicle to be tested by a distance of at least three times the target wavelengths, wherein the target wavelength is a wavelength corresponding to a lowest operating frequency of the vehicle-mounted antenna as taught by Bongfeldt in order to provide "An apparatus includes an antenna for transmitting RF radiation and being structured to enable the distribution of RF energy emitted therefrom to be varied in the vertical plane." (abstract).
Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
KILDAL et al. (US 20170012714) discloses "methods and apparatuses for testing wireless communication to vehicles".
Kuo et al. (US 20200132719) discloses "Anechoic Chamber And Signal Test System Containing The Same".
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AKM ZAKARIA whose telephone number is (571)270-0664. The examiner can normally be reached on 8-5 PM (PST).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Judy Nguyen can be reached on (571) 272-2258. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/AKM ZAKARIA/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2858
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