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 § 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 16, 17, 24 and 31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §112(b) as indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1 and 31 recite “first and second multi-finger field effect transistor, FET, devices.” However, claim 1 further recites that alternating adjacent pairs of gate fingers of each FET device are connected to respective upper and lower voltage rails, which are connected to different input terminals. Thus, each claimed FET device appears to include gate fingers driven by different gate potentials.
It is unclear whether each recited “FET device” is intended to be a single multi-finger FET, multiple FETs merged into one physical structure, or a pair of FET devices corresponding to different Gilbert mixer transistors. Because the claim does not clearly define the structure encompassed by the term “FET device,” the metes and bounds of claim 1 are unclear.
The added limitation that “the second FET device is offset in a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal axis relative to the first FET device” clarifies the relative physical placement of the first and second structures but does not cure the ambiguity regarding whether each claimed “FET device” is a single FET or multiple FETs having gate fingers connected to different gate potentials.
Claim 24 is also indefinite because the recitation that the first and second gate interconnects are “symmetrical” is ambiguous. It is unclear whether the claim requires each of the first and second gate interconnects to be individually symmetrical, or whether the claim requires the first and second gate interconnects to be symmetrical with respect to each other. The claim also does not clearly identify the axis, plane, or reference feature about which the alleged symmetry is measured. Accordingly, the scope of the symmetry limitation is unclear.
The dependent claims are also rejected under 35 U.S.C. §112(b) because they depend on and incorporate the indefinite limitations of claim 1 and/or claim 9, and do not cure the deficiencies identified above. Therefore, claims 16, 17, 24 and 31, and any claims depending therefrom, are indefinite under 35 U.S.C. §112(b).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HELAL A ALGAHAIM whose telephone number is (571)270-5227. The examiner can normally be reached 9-5.
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/HELAL A ALGAHAIM/SPE , Art Unit 3645
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