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 5/14/25 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 § 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moshen et al. (US 2004/0166885) in view of Perry et al. (US 9,575,619).
With regard to claim 1, Mohsen discloses
An analog-to-digital converter circuit, comprising: a programmable gain amplifier (510 Fig. 2) configured to receive and amplify an input signal (506 Fig. 2) to generate an amplified signal; a buffer (524 Fig. 2), configured to receive the amplified signal and output a buffered signal correspondingly; a delta sigma analog-to-digital converter, configured to receive the amplified signal or the buffered signal, and output a digital signal correspondingly; and a bandwidth control circuit (bandwidth switch Fig. 2), configured to generate a first control signal and a second control signal, wherein the first control signal is output to the programmable gain amplifier to control a bandwidth of the programmable gain amplifier, and the second control signal is configured to enable or disable the buffer.
Mohsen fails to teach:
a delta sigma analog-to-digital converter, configured to receive the amplified signal or the buffered signal, and output a digital signal correspondingly.
Perry discloses:
an analog to digital converter that comprises a programmable gain amplifier (242 Fig.6), a buffer (242 Fig. 6), a sigma delta modulator 254 Fig. 6) that is coupled to generate a digital output signal. Therefore, it would have been obvious to ne having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to modify the device of Mohsen by adding a delta sigma modulator as taught by Perry to the output of the buffer or the amplifier for the benefit to improve the output signal of the converter.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-10 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.
Conclusion
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
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