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 § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 22, 23, 26, 27 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yoo et al. (US 2019/0103665).
Re claim 22: Yoo teaches a method comprising receiving, with drive circuitry (a radio unit (not shown), paragraph 0182), a pair of source signals (106A, 106B) for each antenna element of a plurality of radio-frequency (RF) radiating antenna elements (104) of a metasurface antenna (100)), and outputting from the drive circuitry, for said each antenna element of the plurality of radio-frequency (RF) radiating antenna elements (104), a tuning signal for tuning said each antenna element and an amplifier signal for controlling an amplifier coupled to said each antenna element (paragraph 0122) (see figs. 1-6B; paragraphs 01800185, 0212-0224).
Re claim 23: Wherein the tuning signal and the amplifier signal are output simultaneously (i.e., adjusting include tuning by adjusting an amplitude or a phase using an amplifier, paragraph 0122).
Re claim 26: The method further comprising adjusting an amount of amplification performed by the amplifier by adjusting the voltage of the amplifier signal (paragraphs 0124, 0132).
Re claim 27: The method further comprising adjusting the voltage of the amplifier signal by adjusting voltage of one of the source signals (paragraphs 0124, 0132).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-21 and 28 are allowed.
Claims 24-25 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
None of prior art teaches the particular structure of a metasurface antenna comprising a plurality of tuning elements coupled to the plurality of radio-frequency radiating antenna elements, wherein each tuning element of the plurality of tuning elements is associated with one antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements, a plurality of amplifiers coupled to the plurality of radio-frequency radiating antenna elements, wherein each amplifier of the plurality of amplifiers is associated with one antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements, and a drive circuitry coupled to the plurality of antenna elements, the plurality of amplifiers and the plurality of tuning elements, configured to drive individually each of the plurality of antenna elements and the plurality of amplifiers, and a method comprising a drive circuitry wherein the drive circuitry includes a plurality of driver circuits, and further comprising outputting, by one of the driver circuits, the pair of source signals as the tuning signal and the amplifier signal in response to the one driver circuit being enabled as set forth in the claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Boyarsky et al. (US 2021/0210866) and Achour (US 11424548) teach metastructure antennas.
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/SEUNG H LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876