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.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Goto et al. (US 20170099043), cited by Applicant, hereinafter US ‘043, in view of Go to et al. (US 20230006125), hereinafter US ‘125.
As o claim 1, US ’043’s figure 4A shows a filter comprises plurality of resonators (see figures 7-20) and phase cancelling circuit (400) arranged support substrate 510 (figure 16). The figure fails to show that the resonators and phase cancelling circuit are arranged on a piezoelectric layer. However, US ‘125’s figure shows a similar device that its resonators and phase cancelling circuit are arranged on piezoelectric layer (figures 1 and 25A-25B). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to arrange US ‘043’ resonators and phase cancelling circuit on a piezoelectric layer for the purpose of reducing insertion loss. Thus, the modified US ‘043 shows a multi-layer piezoelectric substrate surface acoustic wave device comprising: a multi-layer piezoelectric substrate including a support substrate (510 or US ‘125’s 10) and a piezoelectric layer (US ‘125’s 12); a filter circuit including a plurality of resonators (figures 7-20) in electrical communication with the piezoelectric layer; a phase cancelling circuit (410-430 in 400) integrated with the filter circuit; and a pair of acoustic obstruction structures [(462,464), (466, 468), (472, 474), (410,430), or (482, 484) in figures 3A-3E. ¶0075 also teaches “ It is to be appreciated that, although the acoustic absorber 472 or the floating electrode 474 is depicted only as one-sided arrangement with respect to the first to third IDT electrodes 410, 420, 430, a two-sided arrangement can be configured with respect to the first to third IDT electrodes 410, 420, 430, such that two acoustic absorbers 472 are used or alternatively, two floating electrodes 474”] including a first acoustic obstruction structure and a second acoustic obstruction structure positioned such that the phase cancelling circuit is located between the pair of acoustic obstruction structures along an acoustic track of the phase cancelling circuit.
As to claim 2, US ‘043’s figures show that the first acoustic obstruction structure and the second acoustic obstruction structure include different structures (figure 3C).
As to claim 3, US ‘043’s figures show that the first acoustic obstruction structure includes a metal line having a reflection surface angled non-perpendicular with a wave propagation direction of the phase cancelling circuit (figure 3B).
As to claim 4, piezoelectric material comprising elastic material is well known in the art. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to include elastic material in the piezoelectric layer for the purpose achieving optimum performance, i.e., achieving desired piezoelectric coefficient.
As to claim 5, US ‘043’s figures show that the first acoustic obstruction structure includes an angled electrical connection line that is angled non-perpendicular with a wave propagation direction of the phase cancelling circuit (figure 3E).
As to claim 6, US ‘125 uses trench 61in figures 25A and 25B as acoustic obstruction structure (¶0161). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to use trench for US ‘043’s acoustic obstruction structures for the purpose of achieving optimum performance.
As to claim 7, US ‘043’s figures show that the first acoustic obstruction structure includes a reflector (figure 3A).
As to claim 8, US ‘043’s figure 22 shows a second filter circuit (one of filters 30 is the first filter circuit and another one of the filters 30 is the second filer circuit, see figures 4A-4B) including a second plurality of resonators in electrical communication with the piezoelectric layer, and a second phase cancelling circuit integrated with the second filter circuit (figures 4A-4B show that each filter 30 comprise its own phase cancelling circuit 400).
As to claim 9, US ‘430’s figure 4A shows that the filter circuit includes a transmit filter connected to an antenna and a receive filter connected to the antenna.
As to claim 10, US ‘043’s figure 4A shows that the phase cancelling circuit is electrically connected between a transmit port of the transmit filter and the antenna and between a receive port of the receive filter and the antenna.
Claims 11-20 recite similar limitations in claims above. Therefore, they are rejected for the same reasons.
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/QUAN TRA/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2843
Prosecution Insights