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 .
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 is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
The term “store or N! distinct” in claim 4 and 16 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “store or N! distinct” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. It is very clear what applicant intent to claim “store or N! distinct”. However, for a purpose of examining the application, examiner interprets it as –store N distinct--.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 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 1-6, 13-16, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Dieny (US Pat. 8,208,295).
Regarding claims 1 and 13, Fig. 1 of Dieny discloses a data storage apparatus, comprising:
N memory cells [Fig 1 shows 4 cells], where N is an integer greater than 1;
wherein each memory cell is controllable to conform to a plurality of path arrangements [two paths along wordlines 14] among the N memory cells, and
wherein the data storage apparatus is configured to store data using a collective arrangement of paths among the N memory cells [as discloses in col. 2 lines 39 to 58, data along the paths 14 and 15 generates electrical field enough to store 0 or 1, depending on the magnetic field being parallel or anti-parallel].
Regarding claims 2 and 14, Fig. 1 of Dieny discloses wherein each memory cell is a magnetic memory cell.
Regarding claims 3 and 15, Fig. 1 of Dieny discloses wherein each memory cell is an electrical memory cell [10 is an electrical memory cell], an optical memory cell or a mechanical memory cell.
Regarding claims 4 and 16, Fig. 1 of Dieny discloses wherein the data storage apparatus is configured to store or N! distinct information values [at least “0” or “1”].
Regarding claim 5, Fig. 1 of Dieny discloses wherein each path [each word line 14] of the plurality of path arrangements is associated with a binary number that corresponds to an information value [at lease “0” and “1” for each storage] in the data stored in the data storage apparatus.
Regarding claim 6, Fig. 1 of Dieny discloses wherein the data is encoded into spin wave propagation paths [as shows in Fig. 8] among memory cells.
Regarding claim 20, Fig. 10 of Dieny discloses wherein the configuring the N memory cells includes: initializing the N memory cells to a saturated state of operation [at 1000 H(Oe)].
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.
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dieny (US Pat. 8,208,295) in view of Khitun (US Pub. 2016/0118099).
Regarding claim 12, Dieny discloses all claimed invention, but does not specifically disclose wherein each memory cell comprises Y3Fe2(FeO4)3 material. However, Fig. 1 of Khitum discloses magnetic memory cell comprises Y3Fe2(FeO4)3 material.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply the teachings of Khitum’s magnetic memory cell having Y3Fe2(FeO4)3 material to the teachings of Dieny’s magnetic memory such that Dieny magnetic memory device operate in a complementary manner according to Khitum’s teachings for the purpose of maximum possible group velocity and minimum attenuation for the propagating spin waves at room temperature [paragraph 0023].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-11 and 17-19 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:
Regarding claims 7-11 and 17-19, the prior art does not teach or suggest either alone or in combination wherein the N memory cells are organized as a two-dimensional (2D) grid comprising a first number N1 of rows and a second number N2 of columns, the data storage apparatus further including: N1 left switches and N1 right switches coupled to the N memory cells, a tunable amplifier and a tunable phase shifter coupled in series to the N1 left switches and the N1 right switches.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANTHAN T TRAN whose telephone number is (571)272-8709. The examiner can normally be reached MON-FRI, 9AM-5:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Alexander G Sofocleous can be reached at 571-272-0635. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANTHAN TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2825
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