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 .
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities: In the “Brief Description of The Drawings” section of the specification, Figure 2 and 3’s descriptions need to be adjusted. As follows, “Figure 2 is a drawing showing an overview of the frequency-independent mismatch compensation unit”, should be changed to “Figure 2 is a diagram showing an overview of the frequency-dependent mismatch compensation unit.” Also, “Figure 3 is a diagram showing an overview of the frequency-dependent mismatch compensation unit” should be changed to “Figure 3 is a drawing showing an overview of the frequency-independent mismatch compensation unit.”
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
Claims 9 as well as dependent claims 10, and 11 are objected to because of the following informalities: the mathematical formula in claim 9 is blurry. Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-11 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 recites the limitation "the baseband signal" in line 3. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 1, line 6, the claim recites “a baseband signal”. It is unclear whether this signal is a new and different baseband signal of line 3.
Claim 7 is also rejected for the same reason as above.
Claims 2-6 and 8-11 are rejected as depending upon a rejected claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being unpatentable over Metreaud et al. US-20110013724-A1 (hereinafter, Metreaud).
Regarding claim 1, Metreaud teaches, a receiver (see 130 in Fig. 2) comprising: an I-branch comprising an I-branch mixer (“receiver 130 may have I/Q imbalances, which may result from circuit blocks in the I branch (e.g., mixer 138a” paragraph 27) that down-converts a radio frequency signal to output an I-component, (“a mixer 138a downconverts the filtered RF signal with the I RX LO signal and provides an I downconverted signal” paragraph 22) and an I-branch channelization filter that separates the baseband signal from the output signal of said I-branch mixer; ("Lowpass filters 140a and 140b filter the I and Q downconverted signals…and provide I and Q filtered signals. Amplifiers (Amp) 142a and 142b amplify the I and Q filtered signals, respectively, to obtain the desired signal amplitude and provide I and Q input baseband signals… to digital processor 170.” paragraph 22) a Q-branch comprising a Q-branch mixer that down-converts the RF signal to output a Q component, (“A mixer 138b downconverts the filtered RF signal with the Q RX LO signal and provides a Q downconverted signal.” paragraph 22) and a Q-branch channelization filter for separating a baseband signal from an output signal of the Q-branch mixer; ("Lowpass filters 140a and 140b filter the I and Q downconverted signals…and provide I and Q filtered signals. Amplifiers (Amp) 142a and 142b amplify the I and Q filtered signals, respectively, to obtain the desired signal amplitude and provide I and Q input baseband signals… to digital processor 170.” paragraph 22 lowpass filter can be used interchangeably with channelization filter) a frequency-dependent mismatch estimation unit that computes the frequency-dependent mismatch of the I branch and the Q branch; (Fig. 2 230 and Fig. 5 510;520 and “a coefficient computation unit 510 receives the measured gain imbalances and phase errors and determines coefficients for a FIR filter to compensate for frequency-dependent I/Q imbalances between the I and Q branches” paragraph 97) and a frequency dependent mismatch compensation unit that compensates for frequency dependent mismatches of the I branch and the Q branch according to a computation result of the frequency dependent mismatch estimation unit. (see Fig. 5 530, for Frequency-Dependent I/Q Imbalance Compensation, mismatch and imbalance can be used interchangeably).
Regarding claim 7, Metreaud teaches, a receiver (see Metreaud, 130 Fig. 2) comprising: an I-branch comprising an I-branch mixer (“receiver 130 may have I/Q imbalances, which may result from circuit blocks in the I branch (e.g., mixer 138a” paragraph 27) that down-converts a radio frequency signal to output an I-component, (“a mixer 138a downconverts the filtered RF signal with the I RX LO signal and provides an I downconverted signal” paragraph 22) and an I-branch channelization filter that separates the baseband signal from the output signal of said I-branch mixer ("Lowpass filters 140a and 140b filter the I and Q downconverted signals…and provide I and Q filtered signals. Amplifiers (Amp) 142a and 142b amplify the I and Q filtered signals, respectively, to obtain the desired signal amplitude and provide I and Q input baseband signals… to digital processor 170.” paragraph 22, lowpass filter can be used interchangeably with channelization filter) a Q-branch comprising a Q-branch mixer that down-converts the RF signal to output a Q component, (“A mixer 138b downconverts the filtered RF signal with the Q RX LO signal and provides a Q downconverted signal.” paragraph 22) and a Q-branch channelization filter that separates a baseband signal from an output signal of the Q-branch mixer; ("Lowpass filters 140a and 140b filter the I and Q downconverted signals…and provide I and Q filtered signals. Amplifiers (Amp) 142a and 142b amplify the I and Q filtered signals, respectively, to obtain the desired signal amplitude and provide I and Q input baseband signals… to digital processor 170.” paragraph 22) a frequency-independent mismatch estimation unit that computes the frequency-independent mismatch of the I branch and the Q branch; (Fig. 2 230 and Fig. 5 510;530 and “FIG. 5, compensation unit 230 includes a frequency-dependent I/Q imbalance compensation unit 520 and a frequency-independent I/Q imbalance compensation unit 530.” paragraph 98) a frequency-independent mismatch compensation unit that compensates for frequency- independent mismatches of the I branch and the Q branch according to a computation result of the frequency-independent mismatch estimation unit. (see 530 Fig. 5, for Frequency-Independent I/Q Imbalance Compensation, mismatch and imbalance can be used interchangeably).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-6 and 8-11 would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims, and overcome 112(b) rejection and/or claim objections.
Conclusion
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/WALID MIA/ Examiner, Art Unit 2633
/SAM K AHN/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2633
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