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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 3/13/25 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Weng et al. (US 10,965,300).
With regard to claim 1 Weng discloses:
An analog-to-digital conversion circuit configured to convert an input signal into a digital signal, comprising: a buffer circuit (1100 Fig. 1) configured to receive the input signal (input Fig. 1) and generate an intermediate voltage; a switch (1200 Fig. 1) coupled to the buffer circuit and configured to sample the intermediate voltage according to an operating clock (CLK5 Fig. 1) to generate a voltage (Vin Fig. 1) ;an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) (1300 Fig. 1) coupled to the switch and configured to convert the voltage into the digital signal according to the operating clock and generate an indication signal; and a control circuit (1500 Fig. 1) coupled to the switch and the ADC and configured to adjust a duty cycle of the operating clock (adjust duty cycle for each bit: Figs. 2 and 4; col. 5 lines 54-60) according to the indication signal and a reference clock; wherein the indication signal indicates that the ADC has completed an analog-to-digital conversion operation (col. 7, lines 32-38).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-13 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.
Claims 14-19 are allowed.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Kurahashi et al. (US 20190081635), Kull et al. (US 9,614,540), Schuber (US 20130335049) disclose analog to digital converter that improve performance in converting the analog signal to accurate digital signal.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PEGUY JEAN PIERRE whose telephone number is (571) 272-1803. The examiner can normally be reached from 8:00-6:30 PM Monday-Thursday. The examiner’s fax phone number is (571) 273-1803. The Examiner email address is peguy.jeanpierre@uspto.gov. If attempts to reach the Examiner are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s supervisor Dameon E. Levi can be reached at (571) 272-2105.
/PEGUY JEAN PIERRE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845