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 § 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(s) 21, 27-32 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Carrasco et al. (“Reflectarray Element Based on Aperture-Coupled Patches With Slots and Lines of Variable Length”) in view of Taft et al. (7,030,824).
Regarding claims 21 and 27, Carrasco discloses an apparatus (Fig. 1), comprising a radiation portion and a phase adjustment portion that are stacked, wherein:
the radiation portion comprises a radiation patch (section II: Radiating Element), and the radiation patch is configured to receive and transmit an electromagnetic signal (i.e. reflectarray element, section I: introduction); and
the phase adjustment portion comprises a coupling structure (Fig. 1, rectangular slot, section II: Radiating Element) and a phase adjustment structure (variable length microstrip/delay line), the coupling structure is located between the radiation patch and the phase adjustment structure (Figure 1), and the coupling structure is configured to transmit the electromagnetic signal between the radiation patch and the phase adjustment structure (Abstract),
wherein the phase adjustment structure comprises a straight-line phase adjustment component (microstrip/delay line; section II: Radiating Element),
wherein the feed strip line is configured to transmit the electromagnetic signal to the radiation patch through the coupling structure (i.e. Reflectarray, section II: Radiating Element). Carrasco discloses the option of control elements or switches included in the line layer allowing reconfigurable beam reflectarrays (Section I: Introduction) but does not detail this specific embodiment, i.e. does not disclose the phase adjustment component comprises a plurality of phase adjustment strip lines of different lengths and the feed strip line is configured to be electrically connected to any one of the phase adjustment strip lines to change a reflection phase of the electromagnetic signal. Taft discloses a reflectarray including a phase adjustment component (Fig. 3C) comprised of a plurality of phase adjustment strip lines of different lengths (322, 324) where a feed strip line is configured to be electrically connected to any one of the phase adjustment strip lines to change a reflection phase of the electromagnetic signal (e.g. column 9, line 50- column 10, line 15).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art with a reasonable expectation of success to implement the disclosed reconfigurable reflectarray embodiment of Carrasco by way of a plurality of phase adjustment strip lines of different lengths with the feed strip line electrically connected to any one of the phase adjustment strip lines to achieve the change in reflection phase of the electromagnetic signal with low loss as taught by Taft (column 9, lines 30-37).
Regarding claims 28-29, Carrasco discloses the claimed first circuit board (d3) as illustrated in Fig. 1.
Regarding claim 30, Carrasco discloses the claimed second circuit board (d2) as illustrated in Fig. 1.
Regarding claims 31-32, Carrasco discloses the claimed reflection portion as a reflection panel (ground plane, bottom black layer) as illustrated in Fig. 1.
Claim(s) 22-26 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Carrasco in view of Taft as applied to claim 21 above, and further in view of Jiang et al. (“Low-Profile and Wideband Dual-Circularly Polarized Reflect-Arrays Based on Rotated Metal-Backed Dual-Polarized Aperture Coupled Patch Elements”).
Regarding claims 22-24, Carrasco discloses the coupling structure comprises a linear slot and does not disclose a first slot and a second slot that are provided at an interval, the first slot longer in a first direction, the second slot longer in a second direction, and the first direction is perpendicular to the second direction, wherein the second slot comprises a first segment, a second segment, and a middle segment, the first segment and the second segment are disposed in the first direction, the middle segment is disposed in the second direction, and the first segment and the second segment are connected by using the middle segment. In sum, Carrasco does not disclose an “H” shaped slot. Jiang et al. discloses a reflectarray including H shaped slots to couple a radiation patch to delay lines, e.g. Figure 3. As was conventional in the art, Jiang discloses the shape allows for dual polarization operation (page 2111, section A). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art with a reasonable expectation of success to add an H shaped slot to the reflectarray of Carrasco for the conventional advantage of adding dual-polarized signal handling capability.
Regarding claims 25-26, the claims merely describe necessary structure for the strip line of the phase adjustment component to accommodate the modification with reference to claims 22-24, i.e. that strip lines must be positioned below each slot and cannot overlap each other. One of ordinary skill in the art would likewise have found the claimed features obvious while modifying Carrasco in view of Jiang in order to couple the patch through each slot to phase adjustment structure without cross-coupling.
Claim(s) 33 and 40 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Carrasco et al. (“Reflectarray Element Based on Aperture-Coupled Patches With Slots and Lines of Variable Length”) in view of Taft et al. (7,030,824) and Chowdhury et al. (US 2022/0344826).
Regarding claim 33, Carrasco discloses an apparatus (Fig. 1), comprising a radiation portion and a phase adjustment portion that are stacked, wherein:
the radiation portion comprises a radiation patch (section II: Radiating Element), and the radiation patch is configured to receive and transmit an electromagnetic signal (i.e. reflectarray element, section I: introduction); and
the phase adjustment portion comprises a coupling structure (Fig. 1, rectangular slot, section II: Radiating Element) and a phase adjustment structure (variable length microstrip/delay line), the coupling structure is located between the radiation patch and the phase adjustment structure (Figure 1), and the coupling structure is configured to transmit the electromagnetic signal between the radiation patch and the phase adjustment structure (Abstract),
wherein the phase adjustment structure comprises a phase adjustment component (microstrip/delay line; section II: Radiating Element),
wherein the feed strip line is configured to transmit the electromagnetic signal to the radiation patch through the coupling structure (i.e. Reflectarray, section II: Radiating Element). Carrasco discloses the option of control elements or switches included in the line layer allowing reconfigurable beam reflectarrays (Section I: Introduction) but does not detail this specific embodiment, i.e. does not disclose the phase adjustment component comprises a plurality of phase adjustment strip lines of different lengths and the feed strip line is configured to be electrically connected to any one of the phase adjustment strip lines to change a reflection phase of the electromagnetic signal. Taft discloses a reflectarray including a phase adjustment component (Fig. 3C) comprised of a plurality of phase adjustment strip lines of different lengths (322, 324) where a feed strip line is configured to be electrically connected to any one of the phase adjustment strip lines to change a reflection phase of the electromagnetic signal (e.g. column 9, line 50- column 10, line 15).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art with a reasonable expectation of success to implement the disclosed reconfigurable reflectarray embodiment of Carrasco by way of a plurality of phase adjustment strip lines of different lengths with the feed strip line electrically connected to any one of the phase adjustment strip lines to achieve the change in reflection phase of the electromagnetic signal with low loss as taught by Taft (column 9, lines 30-37).
Carrasco does not require any particular application for the reflectarray and does not specify it is paired with a base station with an antenna. Chowdhury discloses applying a reflectarray (309) also having different length delay lines (Figure 7) to an environment for reflecting signals of a base station comprising an antenna (301), noting that reflectarrays (RIS) are known to address challenges in wireless communications ([0054]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the apparatus of Carrasco with a base station in such an application in order to improve resiliency in wireless communications as demonstrated by Chowdhury.
Regarding claim 40, Carrasco discloses the claimed first circuit board (d3) as illustrated in Fig. 1.
Claim(s) 34-39 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Carrasco in view of Taft and Chowdhury as applied to claim 33 above, and further in view of Jiang et al. (“Low-Profile and Wideband Dual-Circularly Polarized Reflect-Arrays Based on Rotated Metal-Backed Dual-Polarized Aperture Coupled Patch Elements”).
Regarding claims 34-36, Carrasco discloses the coupling structure comprises a linear slot and does not disclose a first slot and a second slot that are provided at an interval, the first slot longer in a first direction, the second slot longer in a second direction, and the first direction is perpendicular to the second direction, wherein the second slot comprises a first segment, a second segment, and a middle segment, the first segment and the second segment are disposed in the first direction, the middle segment is disposed in the second direction, and the first segment and the second segment are connected by using the middle segment. In sum, Carrasco does not disclose an “H” shaped slot. Jiang et al. discloses a reflectarray including H shaped slots to couple a radiation patch to delay lines, e.g. Figure 3. As was conventional in the art, Jiang discloses the shape allows for dual polarization operation (page 2111, section A). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art with a reasonable expectation of success to add an H shaped slot to the reflectarray of Carrasco for the conventional advantage of adding dual-polarized signal handling capability.
Regarding claims 37-38, the claims merely describe necessary structure for the strip line of the phase adjustment component to accommodate the modification with reference to claims 34-36, i.e. that strip lines must be positioned below each slot and cannot overlap each other. One of ordinary skill in the art would likewise have found the claimed features obvious while modifying Carrasco in view of Jiang in order to couple the patch through each slot to phase adjustment structure without cross-coupling.
Regarding claim 39, Carrasco discloses the strip lines comprise a straight-line shape (Fig. 3c).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 11,973,274 shows reconfigurable reflective surfaces with delay lines of different lengths. US 2018/0375487 and US 2015/0380816 show delay elements implemented with transmission lines of different lengths to provide different signal delays in additional contexts.
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/MATTHEW M BARKER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3646
