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) 1-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20210184362 A1 (hereinafter “Hong Loh”) in view of US 20220384961 A1 (hereinafter “Chang’).
Claim 1: Hong Loh teaches an intelligent reflecting surface comprising: a first substrate (e.g., see 12 in FIGS. 1-4, 25-28) including a patch electrode (e.g., see 14), a strip wiring (e.g., see 16, 18, 20, 22 in FIG. 25), and a transistor (e.g., see 20, 22, 24, 26, Para. 214-215); a second substrate (e.g., see 34) including a counter electrode (e.g., see 35) opposed to the patch electrode; wherein a first end of the strip wiring is connected at an intermediate position on one side of the patch electrode (e.g., as shown in FIG. 25), and a second end of the strip wiring is electrically connected to the transistor.
Hong Loh does not teach a liquid crystal layer between the first substrate and the second substrate.
However Chang teaches a liquid crystal layer (e.g., see LCL in FIGS. 2-3) between first substrate (e.g., see SUB1) having patch electrode (e.g., see 110) and second layer (e.g., see SUB2) having counter electrode (e.g., see 120).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to a skilled artisan to utilize a liquid crystal layer between the first substrate of Hong Loh and the second substrate as taught by Chang in order to provide continuous phase reconfigurability which changes the permittivity continuously and/or for precise beam steering in the reflected signal’s phase.
Claim 2: the modified invention of Hong Loh is such that it teaches the intelligent reflecting surface according to claim 1, wherein the patch electrode has a first side extending in a first direction and a second side extending in a second direction intersecting the first direction (e.g., see two sides as shown), and an oscillation direction of a polarized wave (e.g., see Vertical and Horizontal Polarized Electric Field Vectors in FIG. 1) incident on the patch electrode is parallel to or in a direction equivalent to the first direction, and the strip wiring is connected to the second side (e.g., as shown).
Claim 3: the modified invention of Hong Loh is such that it teaches the intelligent reflecting surface according to claim 1, wherein the patch electrode has a first side extending in a first direction and a second side extending in a second direction intersecting the first direction (e.g., see two sides as shown), an oscillation direction of a polarized wave (e.g., see Vertical and Horizontal Polarized Electric Field Vectors in FIG. 1) incident on the patch electrode is parallel to or in a direction equivalent to the second direction, and the strip wiring is connected to the second side, and the strip wiring includes a lead portion extending in the first direction from the patch electrode and an extended portion extending in the second direction, wherein the extended portion is longer than the lead portion (e.g., see stubs in FIG. 32).
Claim 4: the modified invention of Hong Loh is such that it teaches the intelligent reflecting surface according to claim 1, wherein the strip wiring and the patch electrode are arranged on an insulating layer (e.g., insulating layer of 12), and the strip wiring is electrically connected to the transistor via a contact hole (e.g., see FIG. 26-31) arranged in the insulating layer (e.g., see Para. 187).
Claim 5: the modified invention of Hong Loh is such that it teaches the intelligent reflecting surface according to claim 2, wherein a length of the second side is L, and the strip wiring is connected to the patch electrode at a position closer to the center of the second side than a length of L / 4 from both ends of the second side (e.g., wherein the strip wiring is centered on the sides of patch).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 6 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.
Inquiry
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AMAL PATEL whose telephone number is (571)270-7443. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 5:00 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, Dimary Lopez can be reached at (571) 270-7893. 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.
/AMAL PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845
Prosecution Insights