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 11, 13, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin (US 2025/0007458) in view of Roithmeier (US 8,773,211; reference of record).
Regarding claim 11, Lin teaches oscillator circuitry (figure 2A) comprising:
a pair of cross-coupled n-type transistors (NM1, NM2) coupled to a first tail node (NS1);
a pair of cross-coupled p-type transistors (PM1, PM2) coupled to a second tail node (NS2);
a first 1:1 impedance transformer (LA1_1, LA2_1; structure in figure 2B) coupled to the first tail node (NS1);
a first single-ended capacitor (CA2) coupled to the first 1:1 impedance transformer (LA1_1, LA2_1; structure in figure 2B);
a second 1:1 impedance transformer (LA1_2, LA2_2; structure in figure 2B) coupled to the second tail node (NS2); and
a second single-ended capacitor (CA1) coupled to the second 1:1 impedance transformer (LA1_2, LA2_2; structure in figure 2B).
Lin fails to teach the first and second single-ended capacitors being tunable.
However, it is well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art to adjust capacitances of capacitors in parallel with tail inductors of LC oscillator circuits. For example, figure 2 and col. 6, lines 8-14 of Roithmeier teach adjusting capacitances of capacitors (Cp, Cn) in parallel with tail inductors (Lp, Ln) to adjust resonant frequencies of an LC oscillator circuit (60).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to adjust the capacitances of the single-ended capacitors of Lin because such a modification would have provided the benefit of adjusting the resonant frequency of the LC oscillator of Lin.
As for claim 13, Lin teaches wherein: the first 1:1 impedance transformer (LA1_1, LA2_1; structure in figure 2B) comprises a first tail coil (LA1_1) coupled to the first tail node and a first filter coil (LA2_1) coupled magnetically coupled to the first tail coil; and
the second 1:1 impedance transformer (LA1_2, LA2_2; structure in figure 2B) comprises a second tail coil (LA2_2) coupled to the second tail node and a second filter coil (LA1_2) coupled magnetically coupled to the second tail coil.
Regarding claim 15, Lin teaches wherein the pair of cross-coupled n-type transistors (NM1, NM2) and the pair of cross-coupled p-type transistors (NM1, NM2) exhibit unbalanced characteristics (Transistors inherently exhibit unbalanced characteristics, such as process variations, that generate phase noise in an oscillator circuit.), and wherein the first tunable single-ended capacitor (CA2) and second tunable single-ended (CA1) capacitors are configured to restore a balance between the pair of cross-coupled n-type transistors and the pair of cross-coupled p-type transistors (Correcting the phase noise with filter SDN1, SDN2 restores a noise balance generated by the transistors, e.g. from process variations.).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 3, 5-10, and 16-20 are allowed.
Claim 14 is 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The best prior art reference of record, Lin, fails to teach:
“a tunable differential capacitor having a first terminal coupled to the first filter coil and a second terminal coupled to the second filter coil”, as set forth in claim 1;
“a tunable differential capacitor having a first terminal coupled to the first tunable single-ended capacitor and having a second terminal coupled to the second tunable single-ended capacitor.”, as set forth in claim 14; and
“a second coil magnetically coupled to the first coil and shunted to the power supply line”, as set forth in claim 16.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LEVI GANNON whose telephone number is (571)272-7971. The examiner can normally be reached 7:00AM-4:30PM.
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/LEVI GANNON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2836 June 22, 2026
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