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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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 1-6, 11 and 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over IDS document “Li” (Mingjian Li et al.; “Wideband Magnetoelectric Dipole Antennas With Dual Polarization and Circular Polarization”).
Claims 1, 19 and 20: Li discloses a vehicle or a base station (last para. of section 1: “The proposed dual-polarized and CP antennas are attractive for many modern wireless communication applications”), comprising:
an antenna module (Fig. 2), comprising:
a metal plate (box-shaped reflector, Fig. 2 reproduced below);
a metal body (metallic posts) provided on the metal plate and comprising a first slot (gap, Figs. 2-3, between metallic posts) and a second slot arranged crosswise and at a set angle (see gap in Fig. 3), each of the first slot and the second slot comprising a transverse opening (gaps formed in top surface) penetrating through the metal body along a thickness direction of the metal plate and a longitudinal opening (gaps formed in side surfaces) penetrating through the metal body along a plane direction of the metal plate, a length of the transverse opening and a length of the longitudinal opening being (inherently) in a set ratio; and
an excitation source (orthogonal feeds) having an excitation end provided in the first slot and the second slot, and configured to excite the first slot and the second slot to radiate a circularly polarized wave (see also, Fig. 4 and section 3.1).
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Claims 2: Li teaches the antenna module according to claim 1, wherein the metal body comprises a first metal post A (Fig. 2 above), a second metal post B, a third metal post C and a fourth metal post D, the first metal post, the second metal post, the third metal post and the fourth metal post are provided on the metal plate and sequentially distributed at intervals along a circumferential direction of the metal plate (see Fig. 2); and
wherein the first slot is defined between the first metal post and the second metal post and between the third metal post and the fourth metal post, and the second slot is defined between the first metal post and the fourth metal post and between the second metal post and the third metal post (see Fig. 2).
Claims 3-5: Li teaches the antenna module according to claim 2, wherein the first metal post and the second metal post are symmetrically arranged along the first slot, the third metal post and the fourth metal post are symmetrically arranged along the first slot, the first metal post and the fourth metal post are symmetrically arranged along the second slot, and the second metal post and the third metal post are symmetrically arranged along the second slot (see Fig. 2);
wherein the first metal post, the second metal post, the third metal post and the fourth metal post are provided in a cuboid structure with an identical size (see Fig. 2);
wherein each of the first metal post, the second metal post, the third metal post and the fourth metal post is a cuboid with a square bottom (see Fig. 2).
Claim 6: Li teaches the antenna module according to claim 1, wherein the excitation source comprises:
a first metal ring (Fig. 4, connected to port 1) provided in the first slot, the first metal ring and the metal body being in non-contact coupling (see Figs. 2-4);
a second metal ring (connected to port 2) provided in the second slot, the second metal ring and the metal body being in non-contact coupling, a gap being defined between the second metal ring and the first metal ring (see Figs. 2-4); and
a feed source having a feeding end feed connected with at least an end of the first metal ring and at least an end of the second metal ring, and configured to excite the first slot and the second slot by using the first metal ring and the second metal ring, to radiate the circularly polarized wave (see section 2.2-2.3).
Claim 11: Li discloses the antenna module according to claim 1, wherein a ratio of a length of the metal body along the thickness direction of the metal plate to a wavelength of the circularly polarized wave ranges from 0.18:1 to 0.23:1 (Section 2.4: Parametric Studies; Guidelines G-VI,7; at f = 1.8 GHz, the
wavelength λ is about 167 mm, with the height being H = 34 mm, the ratio is 34 mm (H): 167 mm (λ), which is 34/167:1 and therefore 0.2:1, which is a value within the range of 0.18:1 to 0.23:1).
Claims 15-18: Li teaches the antenna module according to claim 1, wherein a frequency band of the circularly polarized wave is at least one of a satellite mobile communication transmitting frequency band or a satellite mobile communication receiving frequency band (last para. of section 1: “The proposed dual-polarized and CP antennas are attractive for many modern wireless communication applications.”);
wherein the metal plate is a floor structure in a circuit board (see Fig. 2);
wherein a size of the metal plate is larger than a size of the metal body, and the metal body is located at a middle part of the metal plate (see Fig. 2).
wherein the set angle between the first slot and the second slot is 90 degrees (see Fig. 2).
Claims 12-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li (cited above) in view of “Jo” (US 7079079).
Claims 12-14: Li fails to expressly teach wherein a ratio of a length of the metal plate to a wavelength of the circularly polarized wave is less than 0.5; or
wherein a ratio of a width of the metal plate to a wavelength of the circularly polarized wave is less than 0.5; or
wherein a ratio of a length of the metal plate to a wavelength of the circularly polarized wave is less than 0.5, and a ratio of a width of the metal plate to the wavelength of the circularly polarized wave is less than 0.5.
However, it has been held that discovering an optimum value of a result effective variable involves only routine skill in the art. In re Boesch, 617 F.2d 272, 205 USPQ 215 (CCP A 1980).
Nevertheless, Jo teaches "[i]t is known that antenna performance is dependent upon the size, shape and material composition of the antenna elements, the interaction between elements and the relationship between certain antenna physical parameters and the wavelength of the signal received or transmitted by the antenna. These physical and electrical characteristics determine several antenna operational parameters, including input impedance, gain, directivity, signal polarization, resonant frequency, bandwidth and radiation pattern." (Col. 1, second paragraph.)
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify LI’s invention such that wherein a ratio of a length of the metal plate to a wavelength of the circularly polarized wave is less than 0.5, or wherein a ratio of a width of the metal plate to a wavelength of the circularly polarized wave is less than 0.5, or wherein a ratio of a length of the metal plate to a wavelength of the circularly polarized wave is less than 0.5, and a ratio of a width of the metal plate to the wavelength of the circularly polarized wave is less than 0.5, in order to obtain tuned antenna operational parameters.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-10 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Wu (US 12126079)
Nealy (US 6057802)
Hannan (US 6618016)
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/HASAN ISLAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845
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