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.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the “electronic device” and the “PAM3 receiver” recited in claim 12; and the “fifth transistor” and the “sixth transistor” recited in claim 15 must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
Paragraph [0067], line 1, “the fifth transistor T51” should be “the first transistor T51”; and line 4, “the sixth transistor T61” should be “the second transistor T61”.
Paragraph [0072], line 1, “the fifth transistor T52” should be “the first transistor T52”; and line 4, “the sixth transistor T62” should be “the second transistor T62”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
Claims 7-9, 15, and 17 are objected to because of the following informalities:
7. (Proposed Amendment) The PAM3 transmitter of claim 2, wherein the driver comprises:
a first transistor configured to receive the input data; and
a second transistor configured to receive the input data.
8. (Proposed Amendment) The PAM3 transmitter of claim 7, wherein the driver further comprises: a first resistor electrically connected to an end of the first transistor; and a second resistor electrically connected to an end of the second transistor.
9. (Proposed Amendment) The PAM3 transmitter of claim 1, wherein the eye monitor circuit is further configured to generate duty cycle adjust signals and to provide the duty cycle adjust signals to the duty cycle adjust circuit when the upper eye patterns and the lower eye patterns of the PAM3 signals are asymmetric to each other.
15. (Proposed Amendment) The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the driver comprises:
a first transistor configured to receive the input data;
a second transistor configured to receive the input data;
a first resistor electrically connected to one end of the first transistor; and
a second resistor electrically connected to one end of the second transistor,
wherein the first transistor comprises a PMOS transistor, and the second transistor comprises a NMOS transistor.
17. (Proposed Amendment) The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the eye monitor circuit is further configured to generate duty cycle adjust signals and to provide the duty cycle adjust signals to the duty cycle adjust circuit when the upper eye patterns and the lower eye patterns of the PAM3 signals are asymmetric to each other.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 5, 6, 8, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 6 depends from claim 5, and claim 5 depends from claim 4, however, the same phase “a driving force of the first transistor” recited in line 1 of both claims 5 and 6, and the same phase “a driving force of the second transistor” recited in lines 2-3 of claim 5 and line 3 of claim 6 are already recited in lines 2-3 and line 4 of claim 4, respectively. Clarification is required to clarify the differences.
The claim subject matter of “a first resistor electrically connected to an end of the first transistor” and the claim subject matter of “a second resistor electrically connected to an end of the second transistor” recited in claim 8, and the claim subject matter of “a first resistor electrically connected to an end of the fifth transistor” and the claim subject matter of “a first resistor electrically connected to an end of the sixth transistor” recited in claim 15 are vague and indefinite. For example, a resistor has its two conductive, wire-like terminals (or leads) that connect it to a circuit, and a transistor does not have a single “end”, but rather three distinct terminals (leads) that manage current flow: the collector (C), base (B), and emitter (E).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-4, 10-14, 16, and 18-20 are allowed.
Claims 5-6, 8, and 15 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
Claims 7-9, 15, and 17 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the objection(s) set forth in this Office action.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
DICKSON et al. illustrates a 4-level PAM transmitter 1000 in FIG. 10 comprising: three serializers 1041, 1042, and 1043 that are required to serialize pre-and post-cursor data; FFE tap sign selection via FFE tap sign selector 1070 being implemented by XORing the serialized data with a sign bit using XOR gates 1071, 1072, and 1073 to select signs from [-1:1]; and drivers 1051, 1052, and 1053 respectively correspond to pre-cursor data, main data, and post-cursor data.
Kang et al. illustrates a communication system 200 in FIG. 2 comprising: a memory device 116 coupled to a memory controller 108 by a data line 202, wherein each of the memory controller 108 and the memory device 116 includes similar circuitries, for example, the memory device 116 includes a transceiver circuit 204, a power management integrated-circuit 206 (PMIC 206), and a power distribution network 208 (PDN 208) that distributes or routes power provided by the PMIC 206 to components of the memory device, including components of the transceiver circuit 204. The transceiver circuit 204 comprises: a transmit circuit 230 including a pull-up circuit 234 and a pull-down circuit 236; a termination circuit 122; a control circuitry 120; and a receiver amplifier 232 (receiver 232).
Kushnir illustrates a communication system 100 in FIG. 1 comprising: a device 110; a communication network 108 including a communication channel 109; and a device 112, wherein the device 110 comprises a transceiver 116 including a transmitter 102, a receiver 104, a digital data source 120, and a processing circuitry 132 including a duty cycle correction circuit 115.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Young T. Tse whose telephone number is (571)272-3051. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 10:30am-7pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Chieh M Fan can be reached at 571-272-3042. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Young T. Tse/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632
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