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 Objections
Claim 4 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 4, Line 2, “the short side” should be rewritten as –the respective short side—or similar, to provide clarification as to what the short side is pertaining to.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claims 2, 4-10 and 12-18 depend upon rejected claim 1 and inherit the deficiency thereby.
Claim 1, Line 4 and Line 8, “a plate shape” is unclear to one of ordinary skill the art as to whether this recitation is related to the previously defined “a plate shape” in line 2 of the same claim (i.e. the same plate shape, or a distinct plate shape, etc.), thereby leaving the boundaries of the claim unclear.
Claim 3, Line 5, “a length of a short side” is unclear to one of ordinary skill in the art as to how this recitation is related to the previously defined “a length of a short side” in line 3 of the same claim (i.e. the same length or short side, or a distinct length or short side, etc.), thereby leaving the boundaries of the claim unclear.
Claim 11 recites the limitation "the basic mode of the second waveguide" in Line 11. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 11 recites the limitation "the secondary mode of the second waveguide" in Line 13. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 1-2, 9 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kent (US 4891573) in view of Young (US 4291287) and Kato et al. (“Broadband Permittivity Measurements up to 170-GHz Using Balanced-Type Circular-Disk Resonator Excited by 0.8-mm Coaxial line”), all references as cited by the applicant.
As per Claims 1-2, 9 and 18:
Kent discloses in Figure 2:
A resonator (“cavity resonator”, [Col. 1, Lines 23-24], not defined in Figure 2), comprising a first waveguide (“upper section”, 12) with a first connecting portion (connected by the top portion of the “holder” 16 connected to “upper section” 12) at one end of a first propagation path (the path formed by the input from “input port” 20, [Col. 5, Lines 24-26], which will be further referred to as P1), a second waveguide (“lower section”, 14) with a second connecting portion (connected by the bottom portion of the “holder” 16 connected to “lower section” 14) at one end of a second propagation path (the path formed by the transmission from the “holder” 16 to the “output port” 24, [Col. 5, Lines 29-30], which will be further referred to as P2) and being opposed to the first waveguide in a first direction (the “F1” direction, as defined in image 1 below, 12 and 14 are opposing in the F1 direction, as is evident by Figure 2), and a multilayer body having two plate shaped dielectric layers and sandwiched (D1 and D2, as defined in annotated Image 1 below, corresponding to an upper (D1) and lower (D2) “holder”, 16, which is inherently dielectric due to the dielectric substrate, [Col. 5, Lines 17-20]), and the first waveguide (12) has, on a second waveguide side (14, the second waveguide side corresponding to the portion of 12 connected to 14), a first communication hole (O1, as defined in Image 1 below, corresponding to the “slot” 18) connecting the first propagation path (P1) with a space between the first and the second waveguide (as is evident by connecting the P1 path of “input port” 20 to the “holder” 16 with the space being formed by the “holder” 16 and “slot” 18), and the second waveguide (14) has, on a first waveguide side (12, the first waveguide side corresponding to the portion of 14 connected to 12), a second communication hole (O2, as defined in Image 1 below, corresponding to the “slot” 18) to connect the second propagation path with the space between the first and second waveguide (as is evident by connecting the P2 path of “holder” 16 to the “output port” 20 with the space formed by the “holder” 16 and “slot” 18), the multilayer body (D1 and D2) is provided in the space between the first and second waveguide (D1 and D2 are provided between upper section 12 and lower section 14, as is evident by Figure 2), in a plan view in the first direction (F1), the first communication hole (O1) overlaps the first propagation path and an external form of the first communication hole (“input port”, 20, as O1 communicates with the input port 20 and overlaps the propagation path as it propagates to the “holder” 16, corresponding to D1) is located inside an inner wall of the first propagation path (input port 20 is formed on the inner wall of the upper section 12 and corresponding to the opening O1), in a plan view in the first direction (F1), the second communication hole overlaps the second propagation path and an external form of the second communication hole (“output port”, 24, as O2 communicates with the output port 24 and overlaps the propagation path as it propagates to the “holder” 16, corresponding to D2) is located inside an inner wall of the second propagation path (output port 24 is formed on the inner wall of the lower section 14), a cross-sectional shape of the respective inner wall of the first and second propagation path is a rectangle (as per Claim 2, as is evident by the rectangular shape of sections 12 and 14 in the cross sectional view of Figure 2), the first and second communication hole have a same shape and size (as per Claim 9, the sections 12 and 14 both have a diameter of 2a and being connected to the slot 18, [Col. 5, Line 21]), (as per Claim 18) transmitting an input wave to the resonator of claim 1 (the input is transmitted through the “input port” 20 and the “transverse coupling loop” 22) and receiving an output wave from the resonator (the output from “output port” 24 and “transverse coupling loop” 26 is received by “detector”, 36, [Col. 5, Lines 44-46]), and calculating dielectric characteristics of the dielectric layers (the dielectric constant and loss tangent can be calculated, [Col. 1, Lines 23-26]).
Kent does not disclose: The first waveguide having a plate shape and a second waveguide having a plate shape and the multilayer body including a circular conductor foil in a first direction and the first and second communication hole overlapping a center of the circular conductor foil.
Young discloses in Figure 1:
The first waveguide (“coupling enclosure”, 21) having a plate shape (as is evident by Figure 1) and a second waveguide having a plate shape (“coupling enclosure”, 19 with a plate shape, as is evident by Figure 1).
Kato et al. discloses in Figure 1(d):
The multilayer body including a circular conductor foil (“circular conductor disk”) in a first direction and the first (upper “excitation hole”) and second communication hole (lower “excitation hole”) overlapping a center of the circular conductor foil (as is evident by the excitation hole located at the center of the resonator ([pg. 1797, II. Measurement system, Paragraph 1]) .
At the time of filing, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified the first and second waveguide of Kent with the plate shaped first and second waveguide of Young to provide the benefit of a substitution of equivalent elements with equivalent structures that perform the same function.
At the time of filing, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified the multilayer body of Kent and Young to include the circular conductor disk of Kato et al. to provide the benefit of the resonant frequencies of the BCDR being drastically changed by switching in disks with different diameters (Kato et al, [pg. 1797, II. Measurement system, Paragraph 2]).
PNG
media_image1.png
593
612
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Image 1
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABIGAIL YALDO whose telephone number is (703)756-1784. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 7 AM - 4 PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Andrea Lindgren Baltzell can be reached at (571) 272-5918. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ABIGAIL AMIR YALDO/Examiner, Art Unit 2843
/ANDREA LINDGREN BALTZELL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2843
Prosecution Insights