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) 1-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dogiamis US 9,960,849 in view of Bae US 10,128,557.
1. Dogiamis discloses a radio frequency (RF) communication system (Fig. 1, etc.), comprising:
an RF receiver (122) configured to receive, from an RF transmitter (116), a first signal of a first carrier frequency and a second signal of a second carrier frequency higher than the first carrier frequency (Col. 3 line 64 – Col. 4 line 2);
a plastic waveguide device (110; dielectric waveguide read as plastic waveguide as similar to Applicant [0035]) configured to provide a communication channel between the RF transmitter and the RF receiver; and
an interconnecting device (119, 123) configured to transmit the first signal from the plastic waveguide device to the RF receiver, and transmit the second signal from the plastic waveguide device to the RF receiver.
Dogiamis does not explicitly disclose the interconnecting device (119, 123) including a first microstrip-to-waveguide transition (MWT) and a second MWT; wherein a frequency bandwidth of the first signal is adjusted by the plastic waveguide device and the first MWT such that the first signal is received as an upper sideband signal, and a frequency bandwidth of the second signal is adjusted by the plastic waveguide device and the second MWT such that the second signal is received as a lower sideband signal.
Bae exemplarily discloses a communication system (Fig. 1A,B, etc.) comprising: two chips (200a,b; i.e., transmitter and receiver) communicate thru a waveguide (300); the waveguide may be rectangular shape (e.g., Figs. 1A, 2); an interconnecting device including a MWT (400a,b; Fig. 4; section of circuit 400 that coupled to waveguide) configured to transmit signal from the waveguide to the chip (receiver); a frequency bandwidth of the signal is adjusted by cut-off frequency due to various dimensions of the MWT (Col. 5 line 65 – Col. 6 line 44); and signal is received as specific desired sideband.
Additionally, waveguide must be built/designed, thus the corresponding dimensions are optimizable parameters to obtain desired characteristics (cut-off; see also pertinent art listed at the end).
At the time of the filing, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have made the interconnecting device including a first and a second MWTs (for corresponding carrier frequency signals) and design the waveguide dimensions as desired. The modification would have been obvious because MWTs are used in communication system with waveguide for transfer of signal and that frequency bandwidth can be adjusted (controlled) as taught by Bae (Col. 5 line 65 – Col. 6 line 44) and dimensions are optimizable parameters designed to achieved desired characteristics. As a result, the frequency bandwidth of the first and second signals are adjusted by the waveguide device and the corresponding MWTs to be received as the corresponding desired sideband signals.
2. The RF communication system of claim 1, further comprising: a duplexer (Dogiamis: Col. 7 lines 18-20) connected to each of the first MWT and the second MWT and configured to transmit the first signal and the second signal from the plastic waveguide device.
3. The RF communication system of claim 1, wherein the frequency bandwidth of the first signal is adjusted by adjusting a lower cutoff frequency using the plastic waveguide device, and the frequency bandwidth of the second signal is adjusted by adjusting an upper cutoff frequency using the plastic waveguide device (Bae: Col. 5 line 65 – Col. 6 line 44; and the intrinsic cut-off of the waveguide).
4. The RF communication system of claim 3, wherein the plastic waveguide device includes a dielectric tube (Dogiamis: Col. 5 lines 3-5; Bae: Figs. 1A, 2) having a rectangular cross-section, and wherein the lower cutoff frequency of the first signal and the upper cutoff frequency of the second signal are adjusted based on a transverse length and a longitudinal length of the cross-section of the dielectric tube (intrinsic of waveguide; see also pertinent art listed at the end).
5. The RF communication system of claim 1, wherein the frequency bandwidth of the first signal is adjusted by adjusting an upper cutoff frequency using the first MWT, and the frequency bandwidth of the second signal is adjusted by adjusting a lower cutoff frequency using the second MWT (Bae: Col. 5 line 65 – Col. 6 line 44; and the intrinsic cut-off of the waveguide).
6. The RF communication system of claim 5, wherein each of the first MWT and the second MWT includes: a probe element (Bae: Fig. 4 item 408) configured to receive a signal from a feeding line (401); and a slotted ground plane (402) through which the signal radiated from the probe element passes to be transmitted to the plastic waveguide device.
7. The RF communication system of claim 6, wherein the upper cutoff frequency of the first signal is adjusted based on a length of the probe element of the first MWT and a slot dimension of the slotted ground plane of the first MWT, and wherein the lower cutoff frequency of the second signal is adjusted based on a length of the probe element of the second MWT and a slot dimension of the slotted ground plane of the second MWT (Bae: Col. 5 line 65 – Col. 6 line 44).
8. The RF communication system of claim 1, wherein the RF receiver is configured to further receive, from the RF transmitter, a third signal of a third carrier frequency lower than the first carrier frequency, and a fourth signal of a fourth carrier frequency higher than the second carrier frequency (Fig. 1; Col. 3 lines 60-62, Col. 4 lines 2-7), wherein the interconnecting device further includes: a third MWT configured to transmit the third signal from the plastic waveguide device to the RF receiver; and a fourth MWT configured to transmit the fourth signal from the plastic waveguide device to the RF receiver (additional MWTs for corresponding carrier frequency channels), and wherein a frequency bandwidth of the third signal is adjusted by the plastic waveguide device and the third MWT such that the third signal is received as the upper sideband signal, and a frequency bandwidth of the fourth signal is adjusted by the plastic waveguide device and the fourth MWT such that the fourth signal is received as the lower sideband signal (frequency bandwidth adjusted by waveguide and MWTs as discussed; Bae: Col. 5 line 65 – Col. 6 line 44; and the intrinsic cut-off of the waveguide).
9. The RF communication system of claim 8, further comprising: a quadplexer (Dogiamis: Col. 7 lines 18-20) configured to transmit the first signal, the second signal, the third signal, and the fourth signal from the plastic waveguide device.
10. The RF communication system of claim 8, wherein the frequency bandwidth of the first signal and the frequency bandwidth of the third signal are adjusted by adjusting a lower cutoff frequency using the plastic waveguide device, and the frequency bandwidth of the second signal and the frequency bandwidth of the fourth signal are adjusted by adjusting an upper cutoff frequency using the plastic waveguide device (Bae: Col. 5 line 65 – Col. 6 line 44; and the intrinsic cut-off of the waveguide).
11. The RF communication system of claim 8, wherein the frequency bandwidth of the first signal is adjusted by adjusting an upper cutoff frequency using the first MWT, the frequency bandwidth of the second signal is adjusted by adjusting a lower cutoff frequency using the second MWT, the frequency bandwidth of the third signal is adjusted by adjusting the upper cutoff frequency using the third MWT, and the frequency bandwidth of the fourth signal is adjusted by adjusting the lower cutoff frequency using the fourth MWT (Bae: Col. 5 line 65 – Col. 6 line 44).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Correspond rejections or written opinion for related application from EPO, JPO, and WIPO. EverythingRF discloses rectangular waveguide’ sizes with corresponding cutoffs. Herbsommer US 9,300,025, Shi US 2008/0266196, Mak US 8,890,750, Paulotto US 10,727,570, each discloses dimensions of the waveguide and/or MWTs affect characteristics (bandwidth, cutoff frequency, etc.).
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/A.W/Examiner, Art Unit 2843
/ANDREA LINDGREN BALTZELL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2843
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