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.
Claim(s) 1-15 and 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2019/0165486 (“Yoshida” or “Y”) in view of US 2011/0175791 (“Ozdemir” or “O”).
1: Y teaches a display device (that of figs 1-6), comprising: a substrate (50) including a display area (15) configured to display an image (0122) and a non-display area (that outside 15) not configured to display an image (as shown); a pixel unit (16) including a plurality of pixels disposed in the display area (0122); and an antenna unit (32) disposed in at least a portion of the display area or at least a portion of the non-display area (as shown), the antenna unit including: a plurality of radiators (32 is an array antenna, as described in 0078).
Nevertheless, Y fails to teach an antenna constituent circuit configuring an antenna with at least one of the plurality of radiators.
However, O teaches an antenna (that of fig 2) having a plurality of radiators that can be configured by a switch controller (as shown).
It would have been obvious to replace Y’s 32 with O’s antenna.
The motivation would have been to take advantage of O’s antenna’s ability to reconfigure its shape to adjust frequency of operation and beam pattern.
Once this modification were made, Y’s system would comprise an antenna constituent circuit (the switch controller together with switches 128 and connections to 122) configuring an antenna with at least one of the plurality of radiators.
2: The modified device of claim 1 would be such that the antenna constituent circuit includes a plurality of switching elements (the 128) controlling whether to connect the plurality of radiators (as shown in O).
However, Y fails to teach that each of the plurality of switching elements includes a thin film transistor.
Nevertheless, thin film transistors were old and well-known.
Thus, it would have been obvious to employ thin film transistors as O’s 128s.
The motivation would have been to employ a ubiquitous, reliable switch for O’s 128.
3: The modified device of claim 1 would be such that a size of the antenna varies according to a number of turned-on switching elements among the plurality of switching elements (as shown in O).
4: The modified device of claim 1 would be such that a shape of the antenna varies according to a position of a turned-on switching element among the plurality of switching elements (as shown in O).
5: The modified device of claim 1 would be such that a resonance frequency of the antenna unit varies according to a number and a position of turned-on switching elements among the plurality of switching elements (when the shape and/or size changes, the resonance frequency of an antenna changes).
6: The modified device of claim 1 would be such that a radiation property of the antenna unit varies according to a number and a position of turned-on switching elements among the plurality of switching elements (when the shape and/or size changes, the radiation pattern of an antenna changes).
7: The modified device of claim 1 would be such that the antenna constituent circuit includes a feeding part connected to at least some radiators (that connecting to O’s receiver 122) disposed at an outermost portion of the plurality of radiators (as shown); and the feeding part is configured to supply a signal to the at least some radiators (while 122 is labeled a receiver, O discusses transmission at 0015; Thus, a person of skill would recognize that O contemplates that 122 could be a transceiver; In addition, it would have been obvious for 122 to be a transceiver instead of just a receiver in order to provide for transmission as well as reception).
8: The modified device of claim 1 would be such that the antenna constituent circuit includes a feeding part (that connecting O’s antenna to 122) connected to at least some radiators disposed at an outermost portion of the plurality of radiators (as shown); and the feeding part is configured to receive a signal from the at least some radiators (as shown).
9: The modified device of claim 1 would be such that according to an on/off state of each of the plurality of switching elements, N radiators among the plurality of radiators are electrically connected to form the antenna (the 128 are connecting/disconnecting switches); and N is a natural number of 1 or more (as shown).
10: The modified device of claim 1 would be such that each of the plurality of radiators corresponds to a size of one pixel (both the pixels and the radiators of Os antenna would have a size; Any two sizes can be said to correspond to each other in a ratio of the sizes).
11: The modified device of claim 1 would be such that a sum of a vertical length and a horizontal length of a rectangular antenna is inversely proportional to a resonance frequency of the antenna, if the rectangular antenna has a same cross-sectional area as a total cross-sectional area obtained by summing cross-sectional areas of unit radiators constituting the rectangular antenna (it is true of all antennas that size in inversely proportional to resonance frequency; In addition, this limitation is only required if the condition is met).
12: The modified device of claim 1 would be such that a ground connected to the antenna has a predetermined width (all grounds have widths); and a value obtained by subtracting the width from the sum of the vertical length and the horizontal length is inversely proportional to the resonance frequency of the antenna (any inverted value is proportional to any other value; For any non-zero numbers a and b, there exists a number c such that a=c/b).
13: Y fails to teach that each of the plurality of pixels includes a red subpixel, a green subpixel, and a blue subpixel; and each of the red subpixel, the green subpixel, and the blue subpixel includes a light emitting diode. However, it was old and well know to provide the same. The motivation would have been to provide a color display.
14: The modified device of claim 1 would be such that the plurality of radiators are positioned on a side surface of an outermost light emitting diode among the plurality of light emitting diodes (as shown in Y, antenna 32 is located to the side of display region 15).
15: The modified device of claim 1 would be such that there is an encapsulation layer disposed on the plurality of light emitting diodes (for example 50 or 17), wherein the plurality of radiators are disposed on the encapsulation layer (either 32 is disposed on the same layer that the display unit is disposed on or it is disposed on a layer above or below the layer that the display unit is disposed on; Either way 32 can be considered to be disposed on a layer that acts to partially or fully encapsulate the display unit).
18: The modified device of claim 1 would be such that the antenna constituent circuit includes: a feeding part connected to a first radiator among the plurality of radiators (that connecting to 122); and a shorting pin (those of switches 128) connected to a second radiator among the plurality of radiators (as shown).
19: The modified device of claim 1 would be such that it would comprise a radio frequency (RF) circuit (122) electrically connected to the feeding part (as shown).
20: The modified device of claim 1 would be an antenna device, comprising: a substrate (50); a plurality of radiators (O’s 126) disposed on the substrate (O’s antenna would replace 32 on 50); and an antenna constituent circuit (that of O’s 130) configuring an antenna (that of O’s 120) with at least one of the plurality of radiators (as shown), wherein the antenna constituent circuit is configured to control whether to connect the
plurality of radiators (as shown in O), and includes a plurality of switching elements (128) disposed on the substrate (the 128 would be disposed on 50, together with the 126), and wherein one of the plurality of switching elements is connected between two adjacent radiators among the plurality of radiators (as shown).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 16 and 17 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GRAHAM P SMITH whose telephone number is (571)270-1568. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10am - 6pm.
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/GRAHAM P SMITH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845