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) submitted on January 22, 2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 14-16 are objected to under 37 CFR 1.75(c) as being in improper form because a multiple dependent claim cannot depend from another multiple dependent claim. See MPEP § 608.01(n). Accordingly, the claims have not been further treated on the merits.
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.
Claims 1-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1: The limitation “each arc-shaped metallic pattern layer,” ln. 8, lacks proper antecedent basis in the claim. For examination purposes, the claim is interpreted as requiring the limitations in claim 2, wherein the arc-shaped metallic pattern layer is introduced.
Claims 2-13 include the same issue due to their dependency on claim 1, and are rejected for the same reasons.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-13 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Prior art, Huawei Technologies Co. (CN 115548692 A), in drawing 15, discloses a phased array antenna module loaded with metamaterials (1), characterized by comprising: a millimeter-wave RF module (10) provided with at least one millimeter-wave emission surface (11); and an arc-shaped metamaterial structure (20; pg. 51, par. 9) forming at least one arc-shaped concave surface, wherein each arc-shaped concave surface is aligned with a corresponding millimeter-wave emission surface.
Prior art fails to teach, nor render obvious, a phased array antenna module loaded with metamaterials comprising: “wherein the arc-shaped metamaterial structure comprises an arc-shaped dielectric substrate and two arc- shaped metallic pattern layers, one arc-shaped metallic pattern layer being formed on one surface of the arc-shaped dielectric substrate and the other arc-shaped metallic pattern layer being formed on the opposite surface of the arc-shaped dielectric substrate; each arc-shaped metallic pattern layer comprising multiple periodically distributed metallic unit structures, the number of arc-shaped metamaterial structures being multiple, the arc-shaped metamaterial structures being stacked, the metallic unit structures in each arc-shaped metallic pattern layer of the same arc-shaped metamaterial structure being of equal size; and the metallic unit structures in each arc-shaped metallic pattern layer of multiple arc-shaped metamaterial structures being arranged in a one-to-one correspondence, with each metallic unit structure in the metallic pattern layers of multiple arc-shaped metamaterial structures stacked in a one-to-one correspondence, and the size of each metallic unit structure in the metallic pattern layers of adjacent arc-shaped metamaterial structures sequentially increases or decreases along the stacking direction," in combination with all of the features recited in independent claim 1.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Pander (U.S. Publication No. 2024/0421478), in figure 14, discloses a flexible metamaterial beamformer 61.
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/Robert Karacsony/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845
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