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 § 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 1-2, 5-7, and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Terrovitis (US 8,723,568).
Claim 1: Terrovitis discloses a multi-path radio frequency (RF) system (Figs.1 and 3A) comprising:
a reference oscillation circuit (310), configured to generate a reference oscillation signal (output of VCO);
a local oscillation (LO) generator circuit (315, 320), configured to receive the reference oscillation signal (see Fig.3A), and generate a plurality of LO signals (LO(I), LO(Q), LO(I)bar, LO(Q)bar) according to the reference oscillation signal (see Fig.3A), wherein a frequency of the reference oscillation signal is a non-integer multiple of a frequency of at least one of the plurality of LO signals (LO_REF being divided by 1.5 before being provided to DLL 320, thus being a non-integer multiple of the LO signals; see Fig.3A, col.4,39-67, and col.7,7,39-44); and
a plurality of mixer circuits (123A, 123B, Fig.1), located on a plurality of signal paths (in-phase and quadrature-phase paths), respectively, and configured to receive the plurality of LO signals from the LO generator circuit, respectively (see Fig.1, col.4,39-44, and col.2,39-40).
Claim 19: Terrovitis discloses a local oscillation (LO) signal generation method (Figs.1 and 3A) comprising:
receiving a reference oscillation signal (output of 310) generated from a reference oscillation circuit (310);
generating a plurality of LO signals (LO(I), LO(Q), LO(I)bar, LO(Q)bar) according to the reference oscillation signal (according to 310), where a frequency of the reference oscillation signal is a non-integer multiple of a frequency of at least one of the plurality of LO signals (LO_REF being divided by 1.5 before being provided to DLL 320, thus being a non-integer multiple of the LO signals; see Fig.3A, col.4,39-67, and col.7,7,39-44); and
outputting the plurality of LO signals to a plurality of mixer circuits (123A, 123B) that are located on a plurality of signal paths, respectively (in-phase and quadrature-phase paths; see Fig.1, col.4,39-44, and col.2,39-40).
Claims 2 and 20: Terrovitis discloses wherein there is only a single mixer circuit located on each of the plurality of signal paths (see Fig.1, where there is only a single mixer in each in-phase and quadrature paths).
Claim 5: Terrovitis discloses wherein each of the plurality of LO signals comprises a plurality of signals with a same frequency but different phases (see Fig.3A and col.7,39-44).
Claim 6: Terrovitis discloses wherein at least one of the plurality of signal paths is a transmit (TX) path (Fig.1; see col.6,59-66).
Claim 7: Terrovitis discloses wherein at least one of the plurality of signal paths is a receive (RX) path (see col.6,59-66, which discloses also providing the mixers within a downconverter of a receiver).
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.
The factual inquiries 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.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Terrovitis in view of Cha et al. (US 2017/0244433, hereinafter “Cha”).
Terrovitis discloses the limitations of claim 1, as discussed above, but does not explicitly disclose the duty cycle of each of the plurality of LO signals as a 25% duty cycle. Cha discloses that providing 25% duty cycle for LO signals in a similar quadrature transmitter eliminates any potential duty cycle overlap between the in-phase and quadrature-phase signals (see [0032]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to have provided a duty cycle of 25% for each of the LO signals of Terrovitis in order to have eliminated any potential duty cycle overlap between in-phase and quadrature-phase signal paths.
Claims 1 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hung et al. (US 2014/0092892, hereinafter “Hung”) in view of Terrovitis.
Hung discloses a radio frequency (RF) system (Fig.1) comprising:
a reference oscillation circuit (14,16), configured to generate a reference oscillation signal (Fvco);
a local oscillation (LO) generator circuit (18, 20, 22, 24), configured to receive the reference oscillation signal (P[0]-P[N]), and generate a plurality of LO signals (Sa[a]-Sa[M]) according to the reference oscillation signal (according to P[1]-P[N]), wherein a frequency of the reference oscillation signal is a non-integer multiple of a frequency of at least one of the plurality of LO signals (see [0038], where in one embodiment, the frequency of 14 is 3.6 GHz and the frequency of S1, which is provided to the multi-phase circuit is 2.88GHz, thus 14 being a non-integer multiple of S1); and
a mixer circuit (26), located on a signal paths (see Fig.1), respectively, and configured to receive the LO signal from the LO generator circuit, respectively (SLO, from 22),
wherein the reference oscillation signal comprises a plurality of signals (P[1]-P[N]) with a same frequency but different phases (see [0033]).
Hung, however, only clearly discloses a single path with a single mixer (26) and does not explicitly disclose the RF system as a “multi-path radio frequency system” having “a plurality of mixer circuits, located on the plurality of signal paths”. Terrovitis discloses that a direct conversion transmitter may be provided by utilizing two separate paths (in-phase path and quadrature path) each having a respective mixer (123a, 123b), the mixers receiving LO signals of different phases (I and Q LO signals). A well-known benefit of utilizing multiple mixers in multiple paths in the form of quadrature modulation or demodulation is increasing the bandwidth by simultaneously transmitting multiple data streams over the same frequency channel shifted in phase. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to have provided an additional mixer and corresponding path in Hung in order to have provided improved bandwidth via multiple data streams on the same frequency channel.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8-18 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: the prior art does not disclose within the context of the claims “wherein the LO generator circuit comprises: a frequency processing circuit, configured to generate a plurality of oscillation signals according to the reference oscillation signal, wherein the frequency of the reference oscillation signal is an integer multiple of a frequency of each of the plurality of oscillation signals, and the plurality of LO signals comprise a first LO signal that is selected from the plurality of oscillation signals; and a frequency combination circuit, configured to combine at least a portion of the plurality of oscillation signals to generate a second LO signal included in the plurality of LO signals.”
Conclusion
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/RYAN JOHNSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2849