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 .
Remarks
The Office has cited particular columns, line numbers, paragraph numbers, references, or figures in the references applied to the claims below for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant in preparing responses to fully consider the reference in entirety, as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention. See MPEP § 2141.02 and § 2123.
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) 1, 5, 6-8, and 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. (US 2022/0078722 A1, hereinafter referred to as Lee) in view of Spears et al. (US 8395459 B2, hereinafter referred to as Spears).
Regarding claim 1, Lee discloses an impedance tuning system comprising:
an antenna (FIG. 1, antenna 102);
a bi-directional coupler configured to transfer an input transmit path signal to the antenna (FIG. 1, bi-directional coupler 110);
a feedback receiver configured to generate an input reflection coefficient based on a coupled signal received from the bi-directional coupler (FIG. 1, feedback receiver 108; para [0026]: "those captured signals are used to compute the AIT metric, which is an indirect measure of the input reflection coefficient Γin towards the antenna impedance tuner 104, denoted as /γin.");
an antenna impedance tuner circuit connected between the antenna and the bi-directional coupler (FIG. 1, antenna impedance tuner 104 located between the bi-directional coupler 110 and the antenna 102); and
a tuner control circuit configured to determine an optimal tune code based on ... the input reflection coefficient, and control the antenna impedance tuner circuit based on the optimal tune code (para [0026]: "According to /γbypass, a tuner control algorithm 106 determines the optimal tuner code a* to maximize the power transferred to the antenna 102"; claim 1: "when the bypass input reflection coefficient is greater than the bypass threshold, determining an optimal tuner code based on a tuner code search algorithm").
Lee does not disclose an antenna impedance tuner circuit ... comprising a plurality of stages; and a tuner control circuit configured to determine an optimal tune code based
on a circuit characteristic value, which is calculated based on an impedance value of a passive element included in each of the plurality of stages ...
Spears discloses “methods for generating a look-up table relating a plurality of complex reflection coefficients to a plurality of matched states for a tunable matching network” (Abstract); "measuring a plurality of complex reflection coefficients resulting from a plurality of impedance loads while the tunable matching network is in a predetermined state, determining a plurality of matched states for the plurality of impedance loads ... and providing the determined matched states as a look-up table" (Abstract); "determining the closest impedance mismatch in a lookup table ... and using ... the complex reflection coefficients in the lookup table which correspond to the determined closest impedance mismatch to tune the tunable impedance matching network" (claim 4); tuning the tunable impedance matching network to adaptively match the impedance of an antenna (claim 6); FIG. 1, col. 3, ll. 31-33: "An adaptive impedance matching network 106 is coupled between RF amplifier 102 and antenna 104").
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the CL-AIT system and tuner control algorithm of Lee (which discloses the core components and determination of optimal tuner code a* based on reflection coefficient feedback and search algorithm) to incorporate staged modeling of the tuner circuit and calculation of a circuit characteristic value based on impedance of a passive element in each stage, as taught by Spears' characterization of tunable matching networks via measured reflection coefficients/parameters for multiple loads/states and generation of matched-state equivalents or lookup tables for tuning toward the antenna. This combination allows more precise, real-time modeling and optimal code determination without sole reliance on exhaustive search or large per-load tables. (Lee paragraphs [0025]- [0026] and Spears Abstract, claim 4, claim 13, and FIG. 1 (col. 3, ll. 28+), FIG. 3 (vol. 5, ll. 51+)).
Regarding Claim 5, Lee discloses the impedance tuning system of claim 1, wherein the
tuner control circuit is configured to determine the optimal tune code by using a hill-climbing algorithm (claim 2: "wherein the tuner search code algorithm comprises a hill-climbing (HC) algorithm"; para [0025]).
Regarding Claim 6, the modified Lee discloses all the features and limitations as discussed above but does not disclose the circuit characteristic value further comprises an impedance value of a transmission line included in each of the plurality of stages; and the tuner control circuit is configured to determine the optimal tune code further based on antenna impedance tuning (AIT) data indicating characteristics with respect to each of the plurality of stage.
Spears discloses detailed characterization data including control settings, reflection
coefficients, and matched states for tunable elements (claim 20: "selecting the parameter from a group consisting of complex reflection coefficients, current drain, incident power, reflected power, control setting of a tunable matching network ... ").
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the CL-AIT system and tuner control algorithm of Lee (which discloses the core components and determination of optimal tuner code a* based on reflection coefficient feedback and search algorithm) to incorporate staged modeling of the tuner circuit and calculation of a circuit characteristic value based on impedance of a passive element in each stage, as taught by Spears' characterization of tunable matching networks via measured reflection coefficients/parameters for multiple loads/states and generation of matched-state equivalents or lookup tables for tuning toward the antenna. This combination allows more precise, real-time modeling and optimal code determination without sole reliance on exhaustive search or large per-load tables. (Lee paragraphs [0025]- [0026] and Spears Abstract, claim 4, claim 13, and FIG. 1 (col. 3, ll. 28+), FIG. 3 (vol. 5, ll. 51+)).
Regarding Claim 7, the modified Lee discloses all the features and limitations as discussed above but does not disclose wherein the AIT data comprises at least one of: data indicating a circuit type of each of the plurality of stages; data indicating a coefficient of each of the plurality of stages; data indicating a number of control bits of each of the plurality of stages; and data indicating a bypass code of each of the plurality of stages.
Spears discloses sets of parameters (including control settings, reflection coefficients) corresponding to matched states per load/state (claim 13; Abstract).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the CL-AIT system of Lee to include/store such per-stage AIT data as taught by Spears in the modeling framework of the combination for the claimed circuit characteristic value calculation.
Method Claims 8 and 12 are essentially the same in scope as system claims 1 and 5 and is rejected similarly as discussed above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 13-20 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The best prior art of record, Lee et al. discloses all the features and limitations as discussed above but does not disclose dividing the antenna impedance tuner circuit into a plurality of stages, obtaining AIT data per stage, calculating a circuit characteristic value comprising impedance value of a passive element of the AIT data per stage, and storing it for real-time use.
Claims 2-4 and 9-11 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Kim et al. (US 2018/0026369 A1) discloses apparatus and method for matching antenna impedance in wireless communication system. Anderson (US 9031523 B2) discloses systems and methods for determining antenna impedance.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL D CHANG whose telephone number is (571)272-1801. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-5 EST.
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/DANIEL D CHANG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845
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