CTNF 18/986,757 CTNF 88798 DETAILED ACTION This Office Action is in response to the application as originally filed 12/19/2024. Status of the Claims: Claim 1 is cancelled. Claims 2-21 are New and pending. The detail office action to the pending claims is as shown below. 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia 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 the Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement filed 01/14//2026 has been acknowledged and considered by the Examiner. Initialed copy of the PTO-1449 is included in this correspondence. Response to Amendments Receipt is acknowledged of Applicant’s request for entry of the Preliminary Amendment filed prior to the examination of the instant application. By this amendment, the Claim is amended. The Claim has been amended by cancelling claim 1 and adding New claims 2-21. The Applicant’s Remark filed with the Amendment advises “claims 2-21 are newly inserted. These claims are supported at least by originally filed examples 1B-36B. No new matter is inserted”. Drawings Objections The drawing(s) filed originally on 12/19/2024 are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a) because they lack suitable descriptive legends required by the public for identifying components/element of the Drawings and for understanding the structural details of the Drawings and the invention in general, by the Examiner. Components or unit elements labels, in Drawings, are essential for conveying characteristics and functions of the components/elements being represented. Any structural detail that is essential for a proper understanding of the disclosed invention should include legends in the drawing. They should contain as few words as possible. MPEP § 608.02(O). Corrected drawings for Figs 1-4 in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. The replacement sheet(s) should be labeled “Replacement Sheet” in the page header (as per 37 CFR 1.84(c)) so as not to obstruct any portion of the drawing figures. 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. Claim Objections The following claims are objected to because of the following informalities: Regarding claim 18, the claim is objected to because it recites an acronym “DC” without defining it in plain text. Every acronym should be defined when it first appear. Appropriate correction required. Regarding claim 21, the claims is objected to because of its preamble. It is respectfully suggested amending it, similar to claim 18, as “the non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim …”.Appropriate correction 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 claims are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention. Regarding, New claims 3, 4, and 10, these claims are indefinite because they are presented as dependent claims of a cancelled claim 1. By way of the Preliminary Amendment filed 12/19/2024, claim 1 was cancelled and add new claims 2-21 are presented for examination. However, pending claims 3, 4, and 10 are submitted as dependent claims of the cancelled claim 1. Assuming the submission of claims 3, 4, and 10 as dependent of cancelled claim 1 is a typographical error or a mistake and for further examination and for the purpose of art consideration on the merit, newly presented claims 3, 4, and 10 will be interpreted as being dependents of Independent claim 2. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-23-aia AIA The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co. , 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows 1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art. 2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue. 3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art. 4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness. 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 2-8, 10, 12, 14-16, 19-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US10742462 to Rada in view of US5249204 to Funderburk et al. (“Funderburk”) ( The remarks and/or references placed in the parentheses apply to the prior art ) RE claim 2, Rada discloses a demodulator (1300, 1400) comprising: at least one signal adder (e.g. at least one signal adder 606, 615, 1618, 1718) configured to obtain an intermediate signal by adding a received phase-modulated communication signal comprising a carrier signal at a carrier frequency to a reference signal at the carrier frequency (e.g. Rada, Figs. 3, 16-17, col, 21, line 25 through col. 22, lines 1-5; col. 22, lines 65-67: … adds a phase modulated signal, including a carrier signal at a carrier frequency, to a reset reference signal having the carrier frequency and outputs a signal that has a rectified envelope voltage (amplitude) signal that can respond to the difference in phase related to reset reference signal), wherein the amplitude of the reference signal is about equal or greater than the amplitude of the received phase-modulated communication signal (e.g. Rada Figs, 9-10 and col. 17 line 40 through col. 18, line 10 and col., 22, lines 1-15: … about equal or greater than the envelope voltage (amplitude) of the received phase-modulated communication signal); and at least one envelope detector (1620) configured to detect an envelope of the intermediate signal (e.g. Rada col., 22, lines 15-30: the envelope detector receives the rectified voltage signal and outputs rectified envelope of the received signal). While Rada discloses receiving an RF signal including a carrier signal; processing the signal to create a phase shifted signal by mixing the signal with local oscillator signal resulting in a signal having difference frequency, and amplifying the signal before detection of the envelope signal is done (e.g. Rada, col. 7, line 20 through col. 8 line 15) and while it is well within the level of a person of ordinary skill in the art to recognize that creating a phase shifted signal by mixing the signal with local oscillator signal results in a signal having difference frequency (i.e. intermediate frequency signal), the subject matter of claim 2 differs from Rada in that Rada does not expressly recite the term “intermediate signal”. However, Funderburk teaches or fairly suggests, in the same technical field, said term. See for example, col. 17, lines 35-50, col. 19, lines 10-20, which discuss a receiver comprising: digital demodulation means for demodulating a digital modulated input signal to provide an in-phase signal and a quadrature signal and digital envelope detector means for detecting at least an envelope signal; and one or more adder having a first input coupled to the digital envelope detector means for receiving the composite channel signal and a second input coupled to the average circuit for receiving the carrier component of the composite channel signal, the adder providing an intermediate signal with a value equal to a difference between the composite channel signal and the carrier component of the composite channel signal. Hence, it would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the feature/element disclosed by Rada with the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art given the broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the specification or with Funderburk’s teachings or suggestions to provide an IF signal (see for example, col. 19, lines 10-20,of Funderburk). Therefore one of ordinary skill in the art, such as an individual working in a field related to wireless communications and techniques for hybrid beamforming configuration could have combined the features/elements as claimed by known methods, and that in combination, each feature/method merely performs the same function as it does separately, with each feature/method retaining its advantageous function, yielding predictable result/s. It is for at least the aforementioned reasons that the Examiner has reached a conclusion of obviousness with respect to claim 2. RE claim 3, Rada discloses the demodulator of claim 2, wherein the at least one envelope detector is configured to output an envelope detected signal (e.g. Rada col., 22, lines 15-30: the envelope detector receives the rectified voltage signal and outputs rectified envelope of the received signal.) RE claim 4, Rada discloses the demodulator of claim 2, wherein the at least one envelope detector comprises a signal squarer (508), configured to receive the intermediate signal, and to output a square of the intermediate signal (e.g. Rada, col. 8, line 60 through col. 9, line 5: the squarer (508) receives the input signal processed (i.e. down converted to intermediate signal) by the baseband processor and output square of the signal.) RE claim 5, Rada discloses the demodulator of claim 4, wherein the at least one envelope detector comprises a differential non-linear voltage controlled current source coupled to a resistive load (e.g. Rada, Fig. 14, col. 22, lines 16-25.) RE claim 6, Rada discloses the demodulator of claim 4, wherein the at least one envelope detector comprises a low pass filter (510) configured to filter the square of the intermediate signal to obtain the envelope detected signal (e.g. Rada, col. 9, lines 5-10: Following the squarer 508, the signal is then passed to a band pass filter which removes unwanted frequency terms outside the doubled carrier frequency (intermediate) signal.) RE claim 6, Rada discloses the demodulator of claim 3, further comprising: at least one direct current offset removal circuit coupled to the at least one envelope detector configured to receive the envelope detected signal and to output a signal without a direct current offset component (e.g. Rada, col. 8, lines 55-58, col. 22, lines 45-50, col. 25, lines 60-64: the demodulator utilizes offset removal processing.) RE claim 8, Rada discloses the demodulator of claim 7, further comprising: at least one analog-to-digital converter (1624) to convert the output of the at least one direct current offset removal circuit to a digital baseband communication signal (e.g. Rada Fig. 14, col. 9, lines 25-28, col. 22, lines 42-53.) RE claim 10, Rada discloses the demodulator of claim 2, further comprising: at least one local oscillator (316) configured to generate the reference signal at the carrier frequency (e.g. Rada, Fig 3, col. 7, lines 40-45: … the local oscillator 316 generates a periodic oscillating electronic signal. In this case, the generated signal is used as the carrier signal.) RE claim 12, Rada discloses the demodulator of claim 8, further comprising: a splitter configured to split a received signal, and to output a first received phase-modulated communication signal and a second received phase modulated communication signal (e.g. Rada, Fig. 13, one or more splitters.) RE claim 14, Rada discloses the demodulator of claim 13, further comprising: a second oscillator configured to generate the second reference signal (e.g. Rada, Figs. 11-13 illustrate the demodulator comprising a second oscillators to generate second reference signal.) RE claim 15, Rada discloses the demodulator of claim 13, wherein the second reference signal comprises a signal that is delayed by 90 degrees related to the first reference signal (e.g. Rada, col. 2, lines 55-60, col, 27, lines 5-30: wherein the second signal is delayed by one symbol versus the first signal or by 90 degrees related to the first.) RE claim 16, Rada disclose the demodulator of claim 14, further comprising: a phase shifter configured to shift the phase of the first reference signal by 90 degrees to obtain the second reference signal (e.g. Rada Fig. 4, col. 8, lines 25-30: the local oscillator 402 is used to generate two outputs having 90-degree phase differences. The two signals are mixed by respective mixers or phase detectors, 406, 408 with the input signal.) RE claim 19, Rada discloses a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon (e.g. Rada, col. 5, lines 30-35, col. 19, lines 45-65: the demodulation system can be implanted on Integrated circuit (IC) and/or software products or integrated together), which, if executed by one or more processors (e.g. Controller 116), cause the one or more processors to: obtain an intermediate signal by adding a received phase-modulated communication signal comprising a carrier signal at a carrier frequency to a reference signal at the carrier frequency (e.g. Rada, Figs. 3, 16-17, col, 21, line 25 through col. 22, lines 1-5; col. 22, lines 65-67: … adds a phase modulated signal, including a carrier signal at a carrier frequency, to a reset reference signal having the carrier frequency and outputs a signal that has a rectified envelope voltage (amplitude) signal that can respond to the difference in phase related to reset reference signal), wherein the amplitude of the reference signal is about equal or greater than the amplitude of the received phase-modulated communication signal (e.g. Rada Figs, 9-10 and col. 17 line 40 through col. 18, line 10 and col., 22, lines 1-15: … about equal or greater than the envelope voltage (amplitude) of the received phase-modulated communication signal); and to detect an envelope of the intermediate signal (e.g. Rada col., 22, lines 15-30: the envelope detector receives the rectified voltage signal and outputs rectified envelope of the received signal). While Rada discloses receiving an RF signal including a carrier signal; processing the signal to create a phase shifted signal by mixing the signal with local oscillator signal resulting in a signal having difference frequency, and amplifying the signal before detection of the envelope signal is done (e.g. Rada, col. 7, line 20 through col. 8 line 15) and while it is well within the level of a person of ordinary skill in the art to recognize that creating a phase shifted signal by mixing the signal with local oscillator signal results in a signal having difference frequency (i.e. intermediate frequency signal), the subject matter of claim 19 differs from Rada in that Rada does not expressly recite the term “intermediate signal”. However, Funderburk teaches or fairly suggests, in the same technical field, said term. See for example, col. 17, lines 35-50, col. 19, lines 10-20, which discuss a receiver comprising: digital demodulation means for demodulating a digital modulated input signal to provide an in-phase signal and a quadrature signal and digital envelope detector means for detecting at least an envelope signal; and one or more adder having a first input coupled to the digital envelope detector means for receiving the composite channel signal and a second input coupled to the average circuit for receiving the carrier component of the composite channel signal, the adder providing an intermediate signal with a value equal to a difference between the composite channel signal and the carrier component of the composite channel signal. Hence, it would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the feature/element disclosed by Rada with the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art given the broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the specification or with Funderburk’s teachings or suggestions to provide an IF signal (see for example, col. 19, lines 10-20,of Funderburk). Therefore one of ordinary skill in the art, such as an individual working in a field related to wireless communications and techniques for hybrid beamforming configuration could have combined the features/elements as claimed by known methods, and that in combination, each feature/method merely performs the same function as it does separately, with each feature/method retaining its advantageous function, yielding predictable result/s. It is for at least the aforementioned reasons that the Examiner has reached a conclusion of obviousness with respect to claim 19. RE claim 20, Rada discloses the non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the instructions further comprise an instruction to output an envelope detected signal (e.g. Rada col., 22, lines 15-30: the envelope detector receives the rectified voltage signal and outputs rectified envelope of the received signal.) RE claim 21, Rada discloses the computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the instructions further comprise an interaction to calculate a mathematical square of the intermediate signal (e.g. Rada, col. 8, line 60 through col. 9, line 5: comprises a squarer (508) which receives the input signal processed (i.e. down converted to intermediate signal) by the baseband processor and output square of the signal). Objected but Allowable Subject Matter 07-43 Claims 9, 11, 13, 17-18 are objected to as being dependent upon rejected base claims, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of their respective base claims and any intervening claims. Conclusion 07-96 AIA The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure are ( See the attached Notice of References Cited (PTO-892) ). These prior arts are considered pertinent because they relate generally to the field of data communication devices and more particularly relates to communication devices comprising at least a demodulator for detecting envelope of an intermediate signal . Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BERHANU TADESE whose telephone number is (571)272-2478. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday (9 - 5 PM EST). 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 on 571.272.3042. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit https//patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https//www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https//www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /BERHANU TADESE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632 Application/Control Number: 18/986,757 Page 2 Art Unit: 2632 Application/Control Number: 18/986,757 Page 3 Art Unit: 2632 Application/Control Number: 18/986,757 Page 4 Art Unit: 2632 Application/Control Number: 18/986,757 Page 5 Art Unit: 2632 Application/Control Number: 18/986,757 Page 6 Art Unit: 2632 Application/Control Number: 18/986,757 Page 7 Art Unit: 2632 Application/Control Number: 18/986,757 Page 8 Art Unit: 2632 Application/Control Number: 18/986,757 Page 9 Art Unit: 2632 Application/Control Number: 18/986,757 Page 10 Art Unit: 2632 Application/Control Number: 18/986,757 Page 11 Art Unit: 2632 Application/Control Number: 18/986,757 Page 12 Art Unit: 2632
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