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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) filed on 12/17/24 is considered by the examiner.
Election/Restrictions
Claims 14-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 5/19/26.
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 1, 3, 7, and 9-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin et al. (US PG Pub. No. 2012/0105295) in view of Chen et al. (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0047889).
Regarding claim 1, Lin et al. teaches (Figs. 1-3C) a combined antenna structure comprising: an antenna (Fig. 1, 112) configured to emit radiation; a dielectric substrate (102) separated from the antenna by a predetermined distance in a direction substantially perpendicular to a surface of a supporting substrate on which the antenna is disposed (see Fig. 1; ¶11); and a conductive metasurface disposed on the dielectric substrate to cover the antenna in a plane substantially parallel to the surface of the supporting substrate (104), the metasurface comprising a substantially two-dimensional structure (110a, 110b) configured to mitigate effects of the dielectric substrate on a gain pattern of the antenna (¶40 lines 10-19).
Lin does not teach the antenna being a mmWave antenna.
Chen et al. teaches (Fig. 2) a combined antenna structure comprising: a mmWave antenna configured to emit radiation in a mmWave band (M; see ¶26 lines 1-12); a dielectric substrate (S).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combined antenna structure of Lin such that the antenna is a mmWave antenna, employing the teachings of Chen.
Doing so would provide the predictable benefit of enabling operation of the combined antenna structure in the mmWave band (Chen, ¶4).
Regarding claim 3, Lin teaches the combined antenna structure of claim 1, wherein the metasurface comprises periodic unit cells each having a main area with a cutout disposed therein (see Fig. 3B, and ¶43 “unclosed slits … on a continuous metal plane as FSS units”).
Regarding claim 7, Lin teaches the combined antenna structure of claim 3, wherein the main area is formed from a solid conductor (see ¶43 lines 12-14; a continuous metal plate constitutes a solid conductor).
Regarding claim 9, Lin teaches the combined antenna structure of claim 3, wherein multiple unit cells cover the antenna (see at least Fig. 1, at least two unit cells of 104 cover antenna 112).
Lin does not teach the antenna being a mmWave antenna.
Chen et al. teaches (Fig. 2) a combined antenna structure comprising: a mmWave antenna configured to emit radiation in a mmWave band (M; see ¶26 lines 1-12); a dielectric substrate (S).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combined antenna structure of Lin such that the antenna is a mmWave antenna, employing the teachings of Chen.
Doing so would provide the predictable benefit of enabling operation of the combined antenna structure in the mmWave band (Chen, ¶4).
Regarding claim 10, Lin teaches the combined antenna structure of claim 1, wherein the metasurface (104) is formed on a surface of the dielectric substrate opposing the antenna (see Fig. 3B, patterns 300a and 300b of 104 formed on both sides of 102, one of which is a surface of the dielectric substrate opposing the antenna 112).
Lin does not teach the antenna being a mmWave antenna.
Chen et al. teaches (Fig. 2) a combined antenna structure comprising: a mmWave antenna configured to emit radiation in a mmWave band (M; see ¶26 lines 1-12); a dielectric substrate (S).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combined antenna structure of Lin such that the antenna is a mmWave antenna, employing the teachings of Chen.
Doing so would provide the predictable benefit of enabling operation of the combined antenna structure in the mmWave band (Chen, ¶4).
Regarding claim 11, Lin teaches the combined antenna structure of claim 1, wherein the metasurface (104) is formed on a surface of the dielectric substrate (102) parallel with a surface of the dielectric substrate opposing the antenna (see Fig. 1, 104 formed on outer surface parallel to inner surface opposing 112).
Lin does not teach the antenna being a mmWave antenna.
Chen et al. teaches (Fig. 2) a combined antenna structure comprising: a mmWave antenna configured to emit radiation in a mmWave band (M; see ¶26 lines 1-12); a dielectric substrate (S).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combined antenna structure of Lin such that the antenna is a mmWave antenna, employing the teachings of Chen.
Doing so would provide the predictable benefit of enabling operation of the combined antenna structure in the mmWave band (Chen, ¶4).
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin et al. (US PG Pub. No. 2012/0105295) in view of Chen et al. (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0047889) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Yonak et al. (US PG Pub. No. 2010/0301971).
Regarding claim 2, Lin teaches the combined antenna structure of claim 1.
Lin does not teach wherein the dielectric substrate comprises glass.
Yonak et al. teaches (Fig. 1E): a dielectric substrate (42); and a conductive metasurface disposed on the dielectric substrate (40), wherein the dielectric substrate comprises glass (¶7 lines 1-3).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the antenna structure of Lin by forming the dielectric substrate to comprise glass, employing the teachings of Yonak.
Doing so would provide the predictable benefit of a rigid planar form of a substrate for the metasurface (Yonak, ¶7 lines 7-8).
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin et al. (US PG Pub. No. 2012/0105295) in view of Chen et al. (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0047889) as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of Chen et al. (US PG Pub. No. 2023/0216197; Herein after Chen et al. 2, or Chen 2).
Regarding claim 4, Lin teaches the combined antenna structure of claim 3.
Lin does not explicitly teach the cutout forming a plus sign whose legs end in a cross.
Chen et al. 2 teaches (Fig. 5) a metasurface comprising periodic unit cells (unit cell 22) each having a main area (24) with a cutout disposed therein (26), wherein the cutout forms a plus sign whose legs end in a cross (see Fig. 5).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combined antenna structure of Chen 2 such that the cutout of each of the periodic unit cells of the metasurface forms a plus sign whose legs end in a cross, employing the teachings of Chen 2.
Doing so would provide the predictable benefit of increasing desired parasitic coupling and reducing undesired parasitic coupling, of an associated multiband antenna (Chen 2, ¶40 lines 18-20).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin et al. (US PG Pub. No. 2012/0105295) in view of Chen et al. (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0047889) as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of Foo (US PG Pub. No. 2018/0316090).
Regarding claim 8, Lin teaches the combined antenna structure of claim 3.
Lin does not teach wherein the main area is formed by a mesh.
Foo teaches (Fig. 3) a combined antenna structure comprising a metasurface (of units 128; see ¶16, ¶32), wherein the metasurface comprises periodic unit cells each having a main area (each periodic unit cell 130 has a main area, see Fig. 3), wherein the main area is formed by a mesh (¶37 lines 3-7).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combined antenna structure of Lin such that the main area is formed by a mesh, employing the teachings of Lin.
Doing so would provide the predictable benefit of optimizing the EM transmission properties of the unit cell (Foo, ¶44 lines 8-11).
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin et al. (US PG Pub. No. 2012/0105295) in view of Chen et al. (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0047889) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Zheng et al. (US Patent No. 11,736,176).
Regarding claim 13, Lin teaches the combined antenna structure of claim 1, the conductive metasurface configured not to interfere with operation of another antenna (the taught metasurface is a frequency selective surface, therefore inherently designed such that it interferes only with particular frequencies).
Lin does not teach the antenna structure further comprising another antenna configured to operate at sub-6 GHz frequencies.
Zheng et al. teaches (Figs. 3-12) a combined antenna structure comprising: a mmWave antenna (Col 8 lines 23-26) configured to emit radiation in a mmWave band; a conductive metasurface (1100, see Fig. 11); and further comprising another antenna configured to operate at sub-6 GHz frequencies (Col 8 lines 23-26), the conductive metasurface configured to not interfere with operation of the other antenna (Col 11 lines 11-15).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combined antenna structure of Lin to comprise another antenna configured to operate at sub-6 GHz frequencies, employing the teachings of Zheng.
Doing so would provide the predictable benefit of enabling operation of the combined antenna structure on frequencies outside of the band stop range of the metasurface (Zheng, Col 11 lines 15-17).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-6 and 12 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.
Regarding claim 5, the prior art does not teach or reasonably suggest, in combination with other claimed limitations, the limitation of “adjacent unit cells are coupled together by a filter having a sub-6 GHz passband”, and the modification of the art of record to incorporate this feature would not have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim 6 is included for its dependency upon claim 5.
Regarding claim 12, the prior art does not teach or reasonably suggest, in combination with other claimed limitations, the limitation of “at an opposing surface of the dielectric substrate, a far-field gain pattern comprises no ripples over a spherical sector covering a range of azimuthal angles from 50° to 125°”, and the modification of the art of record to incorporate this feature would not have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Rumpf, Jr. et al. (US PG Pub. No. 2010/0290503), Wei (US PG Pub. No. 2026/015578), and Borlaug (US Patent No. 11,399,427) each teach metasurface structures comprising cross-shaped resonant elements.
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/DAMEON E LEVI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2845
/Jordan E. DeWitt/Examiner, Art Unit 2845
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