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.
Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent 5,088,326 (Wada et al.) in view of U.S. Patent 6,382,026 (Tajika et al.) and U.S. Patent Application Publication 2022/0087023 (Kazuno et al.).
With regards to claim 1, Wada et al. discloses a piezoelectric accelerometer system comprising, as illustrated in Figures 1-5c, a piezoelectric accelerometer assembly (e.g. the assembly system as illustrated in Figure 2) comprising a rigid circuit board 9 (e.g. a printed circuit board; column 1, lines 22-24); a piezoelectric sensing element 2,3a,4,3b (e.g. weight, electrodes and piezoelectric element forms a sensing element) coupled directly on the circuit board in a single plane (e.g. x-y plane; Figures 1-3); a charge amplifier circuit 6 (e.g. a charge amplifier; column 1, lines 31-32) coupled on the circuit board and electrically coupled to the piezoelectric sensing element (e.g. column 1, lines 33-35; Figures 1-3). (See, column 4, line 15 to column 9, line 2).
The only differences between the prior art and the claimed invention are 1) a plurality of piezoelectric sensing elements coupled directly on the circuit board in a single plane where at least two of the piezoelectric sensing elements have measurement axes that are orthogonal to each other; 2) using surface mount technology (SMT) to directly couple the piezoelectric sensing elements on the circuit board.
For difference 1), Tajika et al. discloses an acceleration sensor system comprising, as illustrated in Figures 1-22, a piezoelectric accelerometer assembly (e.g. the assembly system as illustrated in Figure 4) comprising a rigid circuit board 21,50 (e.g. a printed circuit board; column 4, lines 31-39; column 5, lines 4-5; Figures 2,4); a plurality of piezoelectric sensing elements 51,52,53 (e.g. piezoelectric acceleration sensor units; column 5, lines 6-11; Figure 4) coupled directly on the circuit board in a single plane (e.g. x-y plane; Figure 4) such that at least two of the piezoelectric sensing elements 52,53 have measurement axes that are orthogonal to each other (e.g. x-axis and y-axis; column 5, lines 17-35; Figure 4). (See, column 3, line 41 to column 10, line 15).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have readily recognize the advantages and desirability of employing a plurality of piezoelectric sensing elements coupled directly on the circuit board in a single plane where at least two of the piezoelectric sensing elements have measurement axes that are orthogonal to each other as suggested by Tajika et al. to the system of Wada et al. to have the ability to measure acceleration along three orthogonal axes in lieu in one axis is a well-known concept and to employ a plurality of sensing elements is considered to have been a matter of choice possibilities to the operator/manufacturer the desired/required number of sensing elements that would be sufficient to measure the acceleration along multiple directions without departing from the scope of the invention. (See, column 5, lines 47-51 of Tajika et al.).
For difference 2), Kazuno et al. discloses an electronic device comprising, as illustrated in Figures 1-12, an assembly 1 (e.g. an electronic device; paragraph [0021]; Figures 1,3) including a rigid circuit board 2 (e.g. printed substrate along with wiring pattern; paragraphs [0022],[0023]); a plurality of sensing elements 3x,3y,3z (e.g. angular velocity sensor or any other type of physical quantity sensor like acceleration; paragraph [0028]) coupled directly on the circuit board in a single plane (e.g. paragraph [0024]; observed in Figures 2,3 ); at least two of the sensing elements have measurement axes that are orthogonal to each other (e.g. x-axis and y-axis; paragraph [0024]); using surface mount technology (SMT) to directly couple the sensing elements on the circuit board (e.g. the sensing elements 3x,3y,3z are surface mount component SMC such that these surface mount components are for surface mount technology SMT; paragraphs [0024],[0028],[0071]). (See, paragraphs [0020] to [0090]).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have readily recognize the advantages and desirability of employing the concept of using surface mount technology (SMT) to directly couple the piezoelectric sensing elements on the circuit board as suggested by Kazuno et al. to the system of Wada et al. to have the ability to reduce noise in the detection signals output from the sensors to obtain more accurate detection and to allow for increased manufacturing automation which reduces costs and improves quality. (See, paragraphs [0024],[0071] of Kazuno et al.).
With regards to claim 2, Tajika et al. further discloses the plurality of piezoelectric sensing elements comprises three piezoelectric sensing elements 51,52,53 arranged to measure vibration in three orthogonal axes (e.g. x-axis, y-axis, z-axis; column 5, lines 12-51; Figure 4). At the same time, Kazuno et al. further discloses the sensing elements 3x,3y,3z are coupled directly on the circuit board 2 in a single plane using surface mount technology (e.g. the sensing elements 3x,3y,3z are surface mount component SMC such that these surface mount components are for surface mount technology SMT; paragraphs [0024],[0028],[0071]) and arranged to measure vibration in three orthogonal axes (e.g. paragraph [0028]).
With regards to claim 3, Tajika et al. further discloses two 52,53 of the three piezoelectric sensing elements are coupled to the circuit board in a configuration to measure vibration in a direction parallel to the single plane (e.g. x-axis and y-axis; column 5, lines 17-35; Figure 4), and one 51 of the three piezoelectric sensing elements is coupled to the circuit board in a configuration to measure vibration in a direction orthogonal to the single plane (e.g. z-axis; column 5, lines 12-16; Figure 4).
With regards to claim 4, Wada et al, modified by Tajika et al. and Kazuno et al., further disclose each piezoelectric sensing element comprises a piezoelectric plate 4; a seismic mass 2; a conductive bonding layer 3a (e.g. upper electrode) securing the piezoelectric plate to the seismic mass. (See, column 1, line 7-32; Figures 1-3).
With regards to claim 5, Wada et al., modified by Tajika et al. and Kazuno et al., further disclose the conductive bonding layer 3a is a first conductive bonding layer such that each piezoelectric sensing element further comprises a second conductive bonding layer 3b (e.g. lower electrode) securing the piezoelectric sensing element to the circuit board. (See, column 1, line 7-32; Figures 1-3).
With regards to claim 6, Wada et al., modified by Tajika et al. and Kazuno et al., further discloses electrical connection wires 13,14 (e.g. output leads) electrically coupling each seismic mass to the charge amplifier circuit. (See, column 1, lines 7-32; column 4, line 62 to column 5, line 21; Figures 1-3).
With regards to claim 7, Wada et al., modified by Tajika et al. and Kazuno et al., further discloses a conductive shield 1 (e.g. conductive casing; column 1, lines 17-22) positioned over the piezoelectric sensing elements and the charge amplifier circuit (e.g. observed in Figures 1-3).
With regards to claim 8, Wada et al., modified by Tajika et al. and Kazuno et al., further discloses the circuit board comprises a ground plane on a bottom layer and power and signal circuits 7,8a,8b,31,33,31a,33a (e.g. amplifier, three-terminal capacitors, voltage supply lead; Figure 2) on an intermediary layer where connection points 26,31b,32,33b (e.g. connector along with leads; Figure 2) for the power and signal circuits are accessible outside the conductive shield (e.g. observed in Figure 2).
With regards to claims 9-15, the claims are directed to method claims and are commensurate in scope with the apparatus claims 1-3,5-7 and are rejected for the same reasons as set forth above.
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-15 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection and/or because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
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/HELEN C KWOK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2855