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
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements submitted on 01/28/2025 and 04/02/2025 have been considered and made of record by the examiner.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
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.
Claims 2, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 13, 16, 18, and 19, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yucek et al. (hereinafter, referred to as Yucek) (US 9,794,091), Svendsen et al. (hereinafter, referred to as Svendsen) (WO 2022008788), and Tsai et al. (hereinafter, referred to as Tsai) (US 2006/0099925), further in view of Rakib et al. (hereinafter, referred to as Rakib) (US 2005/0010958).
As to claims 2, 10, and 16, Yucek discloses a mobile device (see Fig. 1, block 102, column 4, lines 41-59, Fig. 2, and column 6, last two lines) comprising: an antenna array partitioned into a plurality of sub-arrays (see Fig. 2, antennas 201(1)-201(n), each antenna is interpreted as a sub-array); a plurality of front-end modules each operatively associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of sub-arrays (see Fig. 2, blocks 210(1)-210(n), see column 7, lines 4-6); a crossbar switch (see Fig. 2, block 240), the crossbar switch including a plurality of inputs connected to the plurality of front-end modules (see Fig. 2, see the inputs of block 240), and a plurality of outputs (see Fig. 2, the outputs of block 240); and a plurality of data conversion channels each configured to receive a receive signal from a corresponding output of the plurality of outputs of the crossbar switch (see Fig. 2, blocks 220(1)-220(n), and column 7, lines 41-55). Yucek discloses all the subject matters claimed in claims 2, 10, and 16 except that a first front-end module of the plurality of front-end modules including at least two radio frequency receive channels configured to process at least two radio frequency receive signals, a combiner configured to combine the at least two radio frequency receive signals to generate a combined radio frequency receive signal, and a frequency downconversion circuit configured to downconvert the combined radio frequency receive signal to generate a common receive signal. Yucek also does not discloses that the crossbar switch operates in analog domain. Svendsen, in the same field of endeavor, discloses a communication system comprising an antenna array partitioned into a plurality of sub-arrays (see Fig. 12b, antenna array 1 and antenna array 2), a plurality of front-end modules (see Fig. 12b, the combination 1203 an 1201 is interpreted as the first front-end module and the combination of 1204 and 1202 is interpreted as the second front-end module) each operatively associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of sub-arrays (see Fig. 12b), a first front-end module of the plurality of front-end modules including at least two radio frequency receive channels configured to process at least two radio frequency receive signals (see blocks 1203 and 1201, there are at least two receive paths receiving RF signals from the antenna array 1 and see page 17, line 27 – page 18, line 5), a combiner (see Fig. 12b, the combiners shown in block 1203) configured to combine the at least two radio frequency receive signals to generate a combined radio frequency receive signal. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Yucek, as suggested by Svendsen, in order to get a more stable received signal power and improve the signal to noise ratio of the received signal. Yucek and Svendsen disclose all the subject matters claimed in claims 2, 10, and 16 except that a frequency downconversion circuit configured to downconvert the combined radio frequency receive signal to generate a common receive signal and that the crossbar switch operates in analog domain. Tsai, in the same field of endeavor, discloses a communication system comprising a plurality of antennas (see Fig. 5 antennas 101-10N), a multiplexer (see MUX 20, interpreted as a combiner), and a frequency downconversion circuit (see Fig. 5, downconverter 40) configured to downconvert the combined radio frequency receive signal (see paragraphs 0007 and 0047, Fig. 5, block 40). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Yucek and Svendsen, as suggested by Tsai, in order to reduce the size and cost of the communication system. Yucek, Svendsen, and Tsai disclose all the subject matters claimed in claims 2, 10, and 16, except that the crossbar switch operates in analog domain. Rakib, in the same field of endeavor, discloses a communication system comprising a crossbar switch (see Fig. 2, block 16). Rakib further disclose that the crossbar switch can be configured to operate in the analog domain (see Fig. 2, switch matrix 16 and paragraphs 0028 and 0034). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Yucek, Svendsen, and Tsai, as suggested by Rakib, in order to reduce the latency and have lower power consumption in the system. No patentable weight is given to the preambles of claims 10 and 16.
As to claims 4, 12, and 18, Svendsen discloses that each of the least two radio frequency receive channels is configured to process a horizontally-polarized radio frequency receive signal and a vertically-polarized radio frequency receive signal (see Fig. 12b V and H signals and see page 17, lines 3-12). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use polarization in the communication system to increase reliability and data rate in the communication system.
As to claims 5, 13, and 19, Yucek discloses that the frequency downconversion circuit of the first front-end module (see Fig. 2, blocks 210(1) and 270(1)) generates a local oscillator signal used by at least one other front-end module (see Fig. 2, block 210(2)) of the plurality of front-end modules (see column 10, lines 23-34).
As to claim 7, Yucek discloses that each of the plurality of sub-arrays is integrated with a corresponding one of the plurality of front-end modules (see Fig. 2, the antennas and the AFEs).
Claims 3, 11, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yucek, Svendsen, Tsai, and Rakib, further in view of Khandani (US 2018/0070394).
As to claims 3, 11, and 17, Yucek, Svendsen, Tsai, and Rakib disclose all the subject matters claimed in claims 3, 11, and 17 except that each of the at least two radio frequency receive channels provides a separately controllable gain adjustment and a separately controllable phase adjustment. Khandani, in the same field of endeavor, discloses a communication system for receiving radio frequency signals, sampling the radio frequency signals, separating radio frequency channels, and having a separately controllable gain adjustment and a separately controllable phase adjustment for each channel (see Fig. 4, blocks 400, 402, 404, 406, and 408 and paragraph 0041). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Yucek, Svendsen, Tsai, and Rakib, as suggested by Khandani, in order to optimize the signal quality.
Claims 6, 14, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yucek, Svendsen, Tsai, and Rakib, further in view of Tetzlaff (US 2014/0177764).
As to claims 6, 14, and 20, Yucek, Svendsen, Tsai, and Rakib disclose all the subject matters claimed in claims 6, 14, and 20 except that one or more frequency downconversion circuits of the at least one other front-end module is disabled when using the local oscillator signal. Tetzlaff, in the same field of endeavor, discloses a communication system comprising first and second channel paths (see the abstract and Fig. 1), where each channel path comprises a downconverter (see the abstract, Fig. 1, downconverters 102I and 102Q and paragraph 0019). Tetzlaff further discloses that the second channel path is deactivated by deactivating the second downconverter from the received wireless signal, while the oscillator and the first down-converter in the first path is active (see the abstract, paragraphs 0007, 0010, 0017, 0020, Fig. 4, and claims 1 and 5). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Yucek, Svendsen, Tsai, and Rakib, as suggested by Tetzlaff, in order to reduce the power consumption in the communication system.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yucek, Svendsen, Tsai, and Rakib, further in view of Mann et al. (hereinafter, referred to as Mann) (US 2018/0040820).
As to claim 8, Yucek, Svendsen, Tsai, and Rakib disclose all the subject matters claimed in claim 8, except that each of the plurality of sub-arrays comprises a mosaic of patch antenna elements. Mann, in the same field of endeavor, discloses a system comprising an antenna array (see paragraph 0012), where the antenna array comprises a mosaic of patch antenna elements (see Fig. 8, and paragraph 0056). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Yucek, Svendsen, Tsai, and Rakib, as suggested by Mann, to increase gain and directivity of the antenna element.
Claims 9, 15, and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yucek, Svendsen, Tsai, and Rakib, further in view of Nabicht et al. (hereinafter, referred to as Nabicht) (US 6,621,346).
As to claims 9, 15, and 21, Yucek, Svendsen, Tsai, and Rakib disclose all the subject matters claimed in claims 9, 15, and 21 except that the system further comprising a digital interface over which the plurality of front-end modules communicate. Nabicht discloses a communication system comprising a front-end module, where the front-end module includes a transmit side and a receive side, the transmit and receive sides share a digital interface that is used when front-end needs to communicate with other devices (see column 7, lines 12-34). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Yucek, Svendsen, Tsai, and Rakib, as suggested by Nabicht, in order to increase the performance and reliability of the communication system.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LEILA MALEK whose telephone number is (571)272-8731. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30am-4:30pm.
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LEILA . MALEK
Examiner
Art Unit 2632
/LEILA MALEK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632