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.
1. Claims 1-4,7-8, 10-13,15-16,23, 27 and 31-32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu (US 2024/0175980) in view of Patel (US 2020/0266842).
2. As per claim 1, Liu teaches a signal transmitting link, applied in an electromagnetic wave sensor, wherein the transmitting link comprises an analog signal source and a digital phase shifter (Liu, ¶0012 “… phase shift circuit … radio transmitting circuit … sensor …”), the analog signal source is configured to provide an initial analog signal, and the digital phase shifter is configured to generate a phase shift signal in a digital domain and to perform phase shifting on the initial analog signal based on the phase shift signal to perform a preset phase shifting operation on the initial analog signal (Liu, ¶0012 “… phase shift circuit … radio transmitting circuit …”. Furthermore, it’s well-known in the art to use phase shifter for the benefit of improving communication and performance quality -see Patel US 2020/0266842 for example ¶0007-0008). Therefore, taking the combined teaching of Liu and Patel as a whole, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the instant limitation for the benefit of improving communication and performance quality.
3. As per claim 2, Liu in view of Patel teaches the signal transmitting link according to claim 1, further comprising a transmitting antenna, wherein the transmitting antenna is configured to radiate a phase-shifted initial analog signal to a preset space region (Liu, ¶0009); or wherein the digital phase shift signal is a single-tone signal and the initial analog signal is a frequency sweep signal; or the digital phase shift signal is a frequency sweep signal, and the initial analog signal is a single-tone signal; or wherein the signal transmitting link transmits a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) signal (Liu, ¶0090).
4. As per claim 3, Liu in view of Patel teaches the signal transmitting link according to claim 1, wherein the digital phase shifter comprises a digital phase shift signal source, a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and a mixer (Patel, ¶0007), wherein the digital phase shifter is configured to generate a digital phase shift signal, the DAC is configured to convert the digital phase shift signal received to an analog phase shift signal, and the mixer is configured to perform a mixing operation on the initial analog signal received using the analog phase shift signal received to perform the preset phase shifting operation on the initial analog signal (Patel, ¶0007).
5. As per claim 4, Liu in view of Patel teaches the signal transmitting link according to claim 3, wherein the digital phase shift signal source comprises a direct digital frequency synthesizer, the DAC is an In-Phase and Quadrature (IQ) digital-to-analog converter, and the mixer is an IQ mixer (Patel, ¶0026).
6. As per claim 7, Liu teaches a signal transmitting link, comprising a signal transmitting main path and a signal calibration link integrated within a same integrated circuit (IC) (Liu, ¶0002-0003), wherein: the signal calibration link is configured to calibrate the signal transmitting main path to acquire compensation information (Liu, ¶0035. Furthermore, it’s well-known in the art to calibrate signal transmitting main path for the benefit of improving communication and performance quality -see Patel US 2020/0266842 for example ¶0033-0035); the signal transmitting main path is configured to generate a radio frequency transmitting signal, after being compensated according to the compensation information, to implement target detection and/or communication (Liu, ¶0055). Therefore, taking the combined teaching of Liu and Patel as a whole, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the instant limitation for the benefit of improving communication and performance quality.
7. As per claim 8, Liu in view of Patel teaches the signal transmitting link according to claim 7, wherein the compensation information comprises at least one of a harmonic distortion compensation parameter, a local oscillator (LO) leakage compensation parameter, and a quadrature imbalance compensation parameter (Patel, ¶0055); or wherein the signal transmitting main path comprises a first signal source and a phase shifter, wherein the first signal source is configured to generate a first analog signal; and the phase shifter is configured to perform frequency shifting and/or phase shifting on the first analog signal to form a radio frequency (RF) transmit signal (Liu, ¶0007).
8. As per claim 10, Liu in view of Patel teaches the signal transmitting link according to claim 8, wherein: when the phase shifter has a non-quadrature architecture (Liu, ¶0055), the phase shifter comprises a second signal source and a transmitting-end mixer, wherein the second signal source is configured to generate a second analog signal, and the transmitting-end mixer is configured to perform a mixing processing on the first analog signal and the second analog signal to form the RF transmitting signal (Liu, ¶0046-0047); and when the phase shifter has an quadrature architecture, the phase shifter comprises a second signal source, a digital-to-analog conversion module, and a transmitting-end mixer (Patel, ¶0007 0026); wherein the second signal source is configured to generate a first digital signal; the digital-to-analog conversion module is configured to convert the first digital signal to a second analog signal; and the transmitting-end mixer is configured to perform frequency shifting and/or phase shifting on the first analog signal based on the second analog signal to form the RF transmitting signal (Patel, ¶0007 0026).
9. As per claim 11, Liu in view of Patel teaches the signal transmitting link according to claim 10, wherein the transmitting main path further comprises a compensation circuit, wherein a signal input terminal of the compensation circuit is connected with the second signal source and a signal input terminal is connected with the phase shifter (Liu, ¶0055), and the compensation circuit is used for combining a compensation signal and a signal output by the second signal source and outputting the combined signal (Liu, ¶0055).
10. As per claim 12, Liu in view of Patel teaches a signal transceiving link, comprising the signal transmitting link according to claim 1, and a signal receiving link; wherein the signal receiving link comprises a receiving-end mixer, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a digital signal processing (DSP) module (Liu, ¶0056 0010); wherein the receiving-end mixer is configured to perform a down-conversion on a received echo signal based on a received receiving-end local oscillator (LO) signal to obtain an analog intermediate frequency (IF) signal (Liu, ¶0056 0010), the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is configured to perform an analog-to-digital conversion on the intermediate frequency signal received to obtain a digital IF signal, and the DSP module is configured to process the digital IF signal to obtain a target parameter (Liu, ¶0061); and the echo signal is a signal formed by a signal, transmitted by the signal transmitting link and reflected and/or scattered by a target object (Liu, ¶0090).
11. As per claim 13, Liu in view of Patel teaches the signal transceiving link according to claim 12, wherein the receiving-end mixer is a real mixer and the ADC is a real ADC; or the receiving-end mixer is a quadrature mixer, and the ADC is a quadrature ADC; or wherein the receiving-end LO signal is a frequency sweep signal; or, the receiving-end LO signal is a single-tone signal (Liu, ¶0046).
12. As per claim 15, Liu in view of Patel teaches a signal calibration link, comprising the signal transceiving link according to claim 12, wherein a receive antenna connection port of the signal receiving link is connected to a transmit antenna connection port of the signal transmitting link, the signal receiving link is configured to perform calibration on the signal transmitting link (Liu, ¶0006).
13. As per claim 16, Liu in view of Patel teaches the signal calibration link according to claim 15, wherein there is a preset frequency difference between a local oscillator (LO) signal of the signal receiving link and a LO signal of the signal transmitting link (Liu, ¶0038).
14. As per claim 23, Liu in view of Patel teaches a signal compensation link, comprising the signal transmitting link according to claim 1, and a compensation unit, wherein the compensation unit is configured to compensate at least one of an IQ mismatch, an IQ imbalance, a signal leakage, and a harmonic distortion of the signal transmitting link (Liu, ¶0055).
15. As per claim 27, Liu in view of Patel teaches an integrated circuit, comprising a radio frequency module, an analog signal processing module, and a digital signal processing module connected in sequence, wherein: the radio frequency module is configured to generate a radio frequency transmitting signal and a radio frequency receiving signal (Liu, ¶0006); the analog signal processing module is configured to perform a down-conversion processing on the radio frequency receiving signal to obtain an intermediate frequency signal (Liu, ¶0056); the digital signal processing module is configured to perform an analog-to-digital conversion on the intermediate frequency signal to obtain a digital signal (Liu, ¶0056); and the radio frequency module comprises the signal transmit link according to claim 1 (see claim 1).
16. As per claim 31, Liu in view of Patel teaches an electromagnetic wave sensor, comprising: a carrier; the integrated circuit according claim 27, disposed on the carrier; and an antenna, provided on the carrier, or integrated with the integrated circuit as an integral device provided on the carrier; wherein the integrated circuit is connected with the antenna and configured to transmit the radio frequency transmitting signal and/or receive the radio frequency receiving signal (Liu, ¶0009).
17. As per claim 32, Liu in view of Patel teaches an device, comprising: a device body; and the electromagnetic wave sensor according to claim 31, disposed on the device body; wherein the electromagnetic wave sensor is used for object detection and/or communication to provide reference information to operation of the device body (Liu, ¶0092).
18. Claims 20-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Al-Qaq (US 10484108) in view of Liu (US 2024/0175980).
19. As per claim 20, Al-Qaq teaches a signal calibration link for a signal transmitting main path (Al-Qaq, Col 3 L27-50. Furthermore, it’s well-known in the art to perform calibration for a signal transmitting main path for the benefit of improving communication and performance quality -see Liu US 2024/0175980 for example ¶0006-0007), wherein the signal transmitting main path is configured to compensate a generated signal according to a compensation coefficient and generate a radio frequency transmitting signal for achieving target detection and/or communication (Al-Qaq, Col 1 L31-59), wherein the signal calibration link is configured to acquire current observation information of the signal transmitting main path at a current compensation coefficient (Al-Qaq, Col 3 L27-50); when the current observation information satisfies an iteration condition, taking the current compensation coefficient as a compensation coefficient used by a compensation operation of the signal transmitting link; otherwise, the current compensation coefficient is iterated until obtained observation information satisfies the iteration condition (Al-Qaq, Col 13 L62-67). Therefore, taking the combined teaching of Liu and Liu as a whole, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the instant limitation for the benefit of improving communication and performance quality.
20. As per claim 21, Al-Qaq in view of Liu teaches the signal calibration link according to claim 20, wherein the compensation coefficient comprises at least one of a harmonic distortion compensation parameter, a local oscillator leakage compensation parameter, and an quadrature imbalance compensation parameter (Al-Qaq, Col 7 L34-54); or wherein the signal transmitting main path and the signal calibration link are integrated in a same integrated circuit (Al-Qaq, Col 7 L34-54).
Allowable Subject Matter
21. Claims 17-19 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
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ZEWDU A. KASSA
Examiner
Art Unit 2637
/ZEWDU A KASSA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2635
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