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 .
Response to Amendments/Arguments
Claims 1-7; 35 USC § 103 Rejections
Applicant’s amendments/arguments the rejection(s) under Taguchi JP-06061783 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the corresponding rejections have been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection correspondingly made in view of Hey-Shipton US 10,230,350 and Nakamura US 2021/0152155.
Claims 9-13; 35 USC § 112 Rejections
Applicant’s amendments/arguments have been fully considered and are persuasive. The corresponding rejections have been withdrawn.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1, 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hey-Shipton US 10,230,350 in view of Noguchi US 5,489,861.
1. Hey-Shipton discloses an acoustic wave filter (Fig. 8 item 810) that includes a pass band including a first band (transmit frequency band), the acoustic wave filter comprising:
a first input and output terminal (input) and a second input and output terminal (to antenna);
one or more series arm resonators (T2, T8, etc.) in a series arm path connecting the first input and output terminal and the second input and output terminal;
a plurality of parallel arm resonators (T1, T7, etc.) connected between the series arm path and a ground; and
a resonant frequency and an anti-resonant frequency of a first parallel arm resonator (T1) closest to the first input and output terminal of the plurality of parallel arm resonators are outside a frequency range of the first band (Col. 10 lines 8-11; transmission zero is at the resonant frequency and anti-resonant frequency is higher than the resonant frequency as well-known in the art as property of the resonator); and
at least one of a resonant frequency and an anti-resonant frequency of a second parallel arm resonator (T7) closest to the second input and output terminal of the plurality of parallel arm resonators is inside the frequency range of the first band (Col. 10 lines 11-13; resonant frequency is below the band to have the anti-resonant frequency inside the band is typical design to achieve a pass band, see Fig. 5 and pertinent art).
Hey-Shipton does not disclose an inductor connected to the first input and output terminal and provided in series in the series arm path; wherein the first parallel arm resonator is connected closest to the inductor.
Noguchi exemplarily discloses an acoustic device (Fig. 2) comprising: matching circuit (120, 220, 300) having inductor (Lt, Lr, La) connected to input and output terminals (Tt, Tr, Ta) and provided in series in a series arm path to the filter (110, 210).
At the time of the filing, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have added matching circuit having series inductor to the filter. The modification would have been obvious because matching circuit provided impedance matching for the filter/device and optimized desired filter characteristics as taught by Noguchi (Col. 4 lines 41-67, Col. 7 lines 8-15). As a result of the combination, series inductor is connected to the first input and output terminal and correspondingly the closest parallel arm resonator to the first input and output terminal would also be the closest parallel arm resonator to the series inductor.
3. The acoustic wave filter according to claim 1, wherein the resonant frequency of the first parallel arm resonator is on a higher frequency side than the first band (Hey-Shipton: Col. 10 lines 8-11).
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the resultant combination of Hey-Shipton US 10,230,350 in view of Noguchi US 6,489,861 as applied to claim 1, and further in view of Taguchi US 5,592,135.
5. The result combination discloses the invention as discussed above, but does not disclose a longitudinally coupled resonator connected between the second input and output terminal and the inductor.
Taguchi exemplarily discloses a filter (Figs. 4, 8, etc.) including series and parallel arm resonators (110, 210a,b) between the input and output terminals (106, 107, 206, 207); and a longitudinally coupled resonator (120, 220) connected between the input and output terminals.
At the time of the filing, it would have been obvious to add a longitudinally coupled resonator between the input and output terminals. The modification would have been obvious because the longitudinally coupled resonator can provide steep rise in the frequency characteristics as taught by Taguchi (Col. 2 lines 15-18, Col. 5 lines 22-26, Col. 7 lines 12-16). As a result of the combination, the longitudinally coupled resonator is between the first and second input and output terminals, thus effectively also between the second input and output terminal and the inductor (which is located with the first input and output terminal).
Claim(s) 6, 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the resultant combination of Hey-Shipton US 10,230,350 in view of Noguchi US 6,489,861 as applied to claim 1, and further in view of Nosaka US 2019/0267970.
6, 7. The resultant combination discloses the invention as discussed above, but does not disclose for claim 6: the first band includes a plurality of bands standardized by 3GPP (registered trademark); for claim 7: the first band includes a downlink operating band of a band B13 for LTE or a band n13 for 5G-NR and a downlink operating band of a band B14 for LTE or a band n14 for 5G-NR.
Nosaka exemplarily discloses a filter (Fig. 26 item 21A) as a receive filter having a pass band including downlink (receive) B13 and B14 (note that B12+B13+B14), which are art recognized bands standardized by 3GPP.
At the time of the filing, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have made the pass band of the filter to include the downlink B13 and B14. The modification would have been obvious because pass band of filter must be designed and implemented, and Nosaka exemplarily shows that the pass band can includes downlink B13 and B14, which are 3GPP bands useable thereof (Fig. 26 item 21A).
Claim(s) 1, 2, 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nakamura US 2021/0152155 in view of Noguchi US 5,489,861.
1. Nakamura discloses an acoustic wave filter (Fig. 1 item 3) that includes a pass band including a first band (reception frequency band), the acoustic wave filter comprising:
a first input and output terminal (unlabeled to further circuitry) and a second input and output terminal (from antenna);
one or more series arm resonators (S1-S4) in a series arm path connecting the first input and output terminal and the second input and output terminal;
a plurality of parallel arm resonators (P1-P4) connected between the series arm path and a ground; and
a resonant frequency and an anti-resonant frequency of a first parallel arm resonator (P4) closest to the first input and output terminal of the plurality of parallel arm resonators are outside a frequency range of the first band (see Fig. 2); and
at least one of a resonant frequency and an anti-resonant frequency of a second parallel arm resonator (P1) closest to the second input and output terminal of the plurality of parallel arm resonators is inside the frequency range of the first band (see Fig. 2; anti-resonant of P1).
Nakamura does not disclose an inductor connected to the first input and output terminal and provided in series in the series arm path; wherein the first parallel arm resonator is connected closest to the inductor.
Noguchi exemplarily discloses an acoustic device (Fig. 2) comprising: matching circuit (120, 220, 300) having inductor (Lt, Lr, La) connected to input and output terminals (Tt, Tr, Ta) and provided in series in a series arm path to the filter (110, 210).
At the time of the filing, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have added matching circuit having series inductor to the filter. The modification would have been obvious because matching circuit provided impedance matching for the filter/device and optimized desired filter characteristics as taught by Noguchi (Col. 4 lines 41-67, Col. 7 lines 8-15). As a result of the combination, series inductor is connected to the first input and output terminal and correspondingly the closest parallel arm resonator to the first input and output terminal would also be the closest parallel arm resonator to the series inductor.
2. The acoustic wave filter according to claim 1, wherein the anti-resonant frequency of the first parallel arm resonator is on a lower frequency side than the first band (Nakamura: Fig. 2).
4. The acoustic wave filter according to claim 2, wherein an anti-resonant frequency of each of the parallel arm resonators excluding the first parallel arm resonator is in the frequency range of the first band (Nakamura: Figs. 2-4; as well as typical design of filter; see pertinent art).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8, 14-18 are allowed.
Claims 9-13 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
For claim 8, the cited references of record do not disclose the claimed relationship between P1, PPA, BWS, and f0S.
For claim 9-13, the cited references of record do not disclose at least the claimed relationship between PSA, PPA, PA, BWS, and f0S.
For claims 14-18, the cited references of record do not disclose at least the claimed relationship between P1, PSA, BWS, and f0S.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Allen US 5,726,610 discloses a typical design of resonant frequencies and anti-resonant frequencies of series and parallel arm resonators of an acoustic wave filter.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/A.W/Examiner, Art Unit 2843
/ANDREA LINDGREN BALTZELL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2843
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