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 § 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.
Claims 1-8, 10-18, and 21-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Dawkins et al. (US 11,075,784, of record and hereinafter “Dawkins”).
Claim 1: Dawkins discloses a transmitter circuit (Figs.2-4) for wireless communication (an intended use of the transmitter that holds no patentable weight within the preamble; however, Dawkins does disclose such a use in col.1,12-30), comprising:
a voltage-controlled oscillator (415, Fig.4) configured to generate an oscillating signal (343 of Fig.3, 443 of Fig.4);
a modulation digital-to-analog converter (430, described as a DAC in col.8,17-21 for modulations, thus a modulation DAC) having an output coupled to a control input of the VCO (at 431, which may be considered the input to 415) and configured to effectively modulate a phase of the oscillating signal (by altering the frequency, the phase of the oscillating signal is modulated; see col.7,6-8 and col.8,50-53, which describe the VCO output as a “phase modulate” signal);
a multiphase generator (322) having an input coupled to an output of the VCO (see Fig.3) and configured to generate a plurality of oscillating signals having different phases from the phase-modulated oscillating signal (see col.7,25-40, where the divider provides N different phases of the divided phase modulated signal); and
a phase modulator (323) having inputs coupled to outputs of the multiphase generator (see Fig.3) and configured to select and output one of the plurality of oscillating signals (see col.6,59-col.7,5).
Claim 10: Dawkins discloses a method of wireless communication (Figs.2-4), comprising:
determining a phase for a transmission signal based on a constellation point (via CORDIC 306; see col.6,19-34 which provides a phase 336 according to a coordinate in a polar transmitter, i.e. a constellation point);
determining an encoding for a frequency modulation based on the phase (via the pre-processor circuit 210/310; see col.5,23-43);
generating a plurality of oscillating signals having different phases (via 322, generating N phases 349);
effectively phase modulating the plurality of oscillating signals having the different phases (via 339/439; see col.6,35-58 and col.7,6-24), based on the encoding for the frequency modulation (based on 339/439, calculated via the pre-processor 210/310); and
selecting one of the plurality of phase-modulated oscillating signals (via 323).
Claim 22: Dawkins discloses an apparatus for wireless communication (Figs.2-4), comprising:
means for determining a phase for a transmission signal based on a constellation point (interpreted as a CORDIC 204 of the instant application, corresponding to CORDIC 306 of Dawkins);
means for determining an encoding for a frequency modulation based on the phase (interpreted as a differentiator 208 of the instant application, corresponding to 210/310 of Dawkins, which comprises a differentiator described in col.6,40-43);
means for generating a plurality of oscillating signals having different phases (interpreted as a frequency divider providing a multi-phase output, corresponding to 322 of Dawkins);
means for effectively phase modulating the plurality of oscillating signals having the different phases, based on the encoding for the frequency modulation (interpreted as a phase modulated VCO 218 and/or an MDAC 216 of the instant application, corresponding to 430, 431, and 415 of Dawkins); and
means for selecting one of the plurality of phase-modulated oscillating signals (corresponding to a phase modulator/selector 224 of Fig.2, corresponding to 323 of Dawkins).
Claims 2 and 11: Dawkins discloses wherein the multiphase generator is configured to generate a number (N) of the oscillating signals having the different phases and wherein the different phases are in increments of (360/N) degrees (e.g. four phases providing quadrature phase differences of the phase modulated signals; see col.7,6-24 and col.5,55-64).
Claims 3, 12, and 16: Dawkins discloses wherein the MDAC is configured to control the VCO to effectively modulate the phase of the oscillating signal by +/- 180/N degrees (Dawkins discloses such an embodiment, where the threshold is set to 90 degrees and 241 is incremented to 180 degrees, thus requiring the MDAC being configured to control the VCO to effectively modulate the phase by +/- 180/N degrees within that increment; see col.5,55-64).
Claims 4 and 14: Dawkins discloses wherein the multiphase generator is configured to generate four oscillating signals with phase increments of 90 degrees and wherein the MDAC is configured to control the VCO to effectively modulate the phase of the oscillating signal by +/- 45 degrees (Dawkins discloses other embodiments including four, which would require a +/- 45 degree modulation via the two point PLL; see col.5,55-64).
Claim 5: Dawkins discloses a bit splitter (210/310, which “splits” the phase control bits into 341 and 339) having a first output coupled to an input of the MDAC (339; see Figs.3 and 4) and having a second output coupled to a control input of the phase modulator (to 323), wherein the bit splitter is configured to receive an encoding for a frequency modulation and to generate a fine frequency modulation encoding for the MDAC and a coarse frequency modulation encoding for the phase modulator (see col.6,35-58).
Claim 6: Dawkins discloses wherein the coarse frequency modulation encoding is configured to control selection of the one of the plurality of oscillating signals by the phase modulator (via 341; see col.6,35-58).
Claim 7: Dawkins discloses a differentiator having an output coupled to an input of the bit splitter and configured to receive a phase encoding and to generate the encoding for the frequency modulation based on the phase encoding using differentiation (also within 210/310; see col.6,35-58, where Dawkins discloses first calculating dϕ/dt then performing other functions of the “instantaneous frequency”, e.g. multi-phase processing functions and clipping of the instantaneous frequency value. The calculation of dϕ/dt may be considered the “differentiator”, whereas the remainder of the functions, the multi-phase processing functions and clipping, may be considered the “bit splitter”, which provides each of 341 and 349; the examiner notes that this interpretation is consistent with the use in the instant specification, where the differentiator and bit splitter may be implemented digitally as a DSP, FPGA, PLD, or the like; see [0037] of the instant application).
Claim 8: Dawkins discloses an amplifier (325) having an input coupled to an output of the phase modulator (receiving 342) and configured to amplify the one of the plurality of oscillating signals selected and output by the phase modulator for transmission (see Fig.3).
Claim 13: Dawkins discloses wherein the effectively phase modulating comprises maintaining a phase separation of (360/N)° between the oscillating signals having the different phases (via divider 322, which maintains the phase separation between N phases 349; see col.7,25-40).
Claim 15: Dawkins discloses wherein the generating comprises: controlling a voltage-controlled oscillator (415, via 439, 430, and 431) to generate an oscillating signal (443); and frequency dividing the oscillating signal (via 322) to generate a number (N) of the oscillating signals having the different phases (349; see Figs.3 and 4).
Claims 17 and 18: Dawkins discloses wherein determining the encoding for the frequency modulation comprises: generating a fine frequency modulation encoding for inputting to the MDAC (339 of Fig.3); and generating a coarse frequency modulation encoding for controlling a phase modulator (341 of Fig.3), wherein the selecting comprises using the phase modulator to select the one of the plurality of oscillating signals (see Fig.3 and col.5,44-64, which describes the fine/coarse modulation functionality).
Claim 21: Dawkins discloses wherein the selecting comprises selecting the one of the plurality of phase-modulated oscillating signals with a modulated phase nearest the constellation point (see col.5,44-64, which describes the function via shifting 180 degrees ahead of a current phase in one example).
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dawkins in view of Frantzeskakis et al. (US 2008/0116986, hereinafter “Frantzeskakis”).
Dawkins discloses the method of claim 10 and further discloses “amplifying a selected on of the plurality of phase-modulated oscillating signals” (via 225/325). However, Dawkins does not explicitly disclose “processing the amplified signal; and transmitting the processed signal as the transmission signal” as required by claim 20. Frantzeskakis discloses in a similar polar transmitter (Fig.2), amplifying a phase modulated output (output of 156, amplified by pre-amplifier 144), processing the amplified signal (via amplitude modulation with power amplifier 152 and filtering via 138), then transmitting the processed signal (via 121b). See [0040]. Frantzeskakis discloses that such post processing allows for a band limited amplified RF output and desired signal characteristics for RF transmission (see [0040]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to have provided the pre-amplifier and/or bandpass filter of Frantzeskakis with the polar transmitter of Dawkins, thus providing processing of an amplified selected phase modulated signal and transmission of the processed signal, in order to have provided a band limited amplified RF output and desired signal characteristics for RF transmission.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Osman et al.. (US 2010/0009641) discloses another example of a polar transmitter with fine phase frequency modulator via a VCO in a PLL/FLL and coarse phase modulation via a multiphase generator and selector from the fine phase modulator signal (see Figs.4 and 5).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Ryan Johnson whose telephone number is (571)270-1264. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Menna Youssef can be reached at 571-270-3684. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/RYAN JOHNSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2836
