DETAILED CORRESPONDENCE
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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claim Interpretation
The claim elements do not invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112(f).
References
D1: CN113884116 HUANG et al. January 4, 2022
Claim Rejections - 35 U.S.C. § 102
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.
Claims 1-3, 15 , and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by D1.
With regards to claims 1 and 15, the D1 reference discloses the utilization of an ultrasonic transceiver (¶ 0047) device, comprising: a plurality of coupled ultrasonic transceiver units, wherein, each of the ultrasonic transceiver units comprises: a plurality of ultrasonic oscillators (110, VRFout1-VRFout128); a driving bias circuit (PD1, PD2) coupled to the ultrasonic oscillators and used to selectively output an alternating current (AC) voltage and a direct current (DC) voltage (¶ 0045) to the ultrasonic oscillators; and a switching circuit (120, 140, 150) coupled to the driving bias circuit, wherein the switching circuit has a plurality of switching paths (Figs. 2-5) corresponding to a plurality of impedance values (¶ 0053:capacitance or reactance) or a plurality of inductance values, and the switching circuit is used to switch a system driving signal to pass through one of the switching paths according to a mode selection signal and transmitted to the driving bias circuit (¶ 0062).
With regards to claims 2 and 16, the D1 reference discloses the ultrasonic transceiver units are connected in parallel or series (Figs. 2-5).
With regards to claims 3 and 16, the D1 reference discloses ultrasonic transceiver units, the ultrasonic oscillators are connected in series (Fig. 1).
Examiner Note
Examiner has pointed out particular references contained in the prior art of record in the body of this action for the convenience of the Applicant. However, any citation to specific, pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior art references and any interpretation of the references should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. In re Heck, 699 F.2d 1331, 1332-33, 216 USPQ 1038, 1039 (Fed. Cir. 1983) (quoting In re Lemelson, 397 F.2d 1006, 1009, 158 USPQ 275, 277 (CCPA 1968)). Applicant, in preparing the response, should consider fully the entire reference as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-14 and 17-20 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 Dan Pihulic whose telephone number is 571-272-6977. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Helal Algahaim, can be reached on 571-270-5227.
/Daniel Pihulic/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3645
Prosecution Insights