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.
Claim(s) 1-3 and 5-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2022/0037785 (“Okita” or “O”).
1: O teaches a reflect array (that of figs 11 and 12) comprising: a plurality of patch electrodes (the PE) arranged spaced apart (as shown) and interconnected to an incident surface of a radio wave (as shown by W1); a plurality of control electrodes (the HE) arranged spaced apart (as shown) to correspond to the plurality of patch electrodes (as shown) and disposed on a rear side of the plurality of patch electrodes (as shown); a liquid crystal layer (LC) between the plurality of patch electrodes and the plurality of control electrodes (as shown); and an auxiliary electrode (the CE) disposed to overlap a separated region of the plurality of control electrodes (the CE are placed between the HE).
2: O teaches that the auxiliary electrode is disposed in a separated region of the plurality of patch electrodes in a plan view (as shown, the CE are between the PE).
3: O teaches an insulating layer (14) between the plurality of control electrodes and the auxiliary electrode (as shown).
5: O teaches that the auxiliary electrode is between the plurality of control electrodes and the liquid crystal layer (as shown).
6: O teaches that a potential of the auxiliary electrode is grounded or floating (the CE is a common electrode).
7: O teaches an array substrate (1) disposed with a plurality of control electrodes (as shown); and a counter substrate (2) disposed with a plurality of patch electrodes (as shown), wherein the liquid crystal layer is disposed between the array substrate and the counter substrate (as shown), the plurality of control electrodes are individually controlled by an applied voltage (0090-0091), and the auxiliary electrode is disposed on the array substrate (the CE are disposed on 1 via 14).
However, O fails to teach that the plurality of control electrodes are each connected to a transistor. Nevertheless, O teaches using thin film transistors as switching elements on wiring lines of a radio wave reflecting device (0069-0073). Thus, it would have been obvious to provide that the plurality of control electrodes are each connected to a transistor by using thin film transistors connected to the L of fig 11 to control the voltages applied to the HEs, as described by 0090-0091.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 is 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
