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 of this title, 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 1-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang (US 10,139,956) in view of Huang (US 2019/0384445).
With respect to Claim 1, Yang teaches a display apparatus (Yang: Col. 11, lines 16-24) comprising:
a pixel driving circuit provided in the display area (Yang: Col. 3, lines 27-40, Fig. 1, transmit the data signal to the data signal port of the pixel circuit in the electroluminescent touch-control display panel);
one or more first electrodes connected to the pixel driving circuit (Yang: Col. 9, lines 19-31, provide a data source signal to each pixel circuit in the electroluminescent touch-control display panel);
a plurality of light emitting devices (Yang: Col. 1, lines 24-41, an electroluminescent display panel using organic light-emitting diodes (OLED));
a plurality of second electrodes provided on the light emitting devices (Yang: Col. 5, lines 24-39, the cathode in the OLED panel is segmented into a plurality of touch-control electrodes arranged in arrays and independent from each other).
wherein the pixel driving circuit comprises:
a sensing circuit configured to supply a cathode voltage or a touch driving signal to the plurality of second electrodes (Yang: Col. 7, lines 25-50, Fig. 2, the first reference signal cathode voltage is gated through the first gating circuit 1222… the touch-control excitation signal transmitted by the first modulation circuit 121 is gated and then is transmitted to the cathode); and
a sensing switch configured to, in response to a touch enable signal, transmit power from a power circuit to the sensing circuit or block power transmitted from the power circuit (Yang: Col. 7, lines 25-50, Fig. 2-3, during the touch-control period, when the first gating circuit 122 receives the EN2 signal, the touch-control excitation signal transmitted by the first modulation circuit 121 is gated… The first reference signal generated by the DCDC module in the lighting circuit board 130… During the display period, when the first gating circuit 122 receives the EN1 signal, the first reference signal is gated. Examiner notes that under the broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI) of the disjunctive “or,” gating/blocking the VSS reference signal transmitted from the lighting circuit board during EN2 satisfies the limitation “block power transmitted from the power circuit”).
Yang fails to expressly disclose the explicit structural arrangement of the display area and non-display area on the substrate, and the specific physical stacking order of the first electrodes and light-emitting devices.
However, Huang discloses:
a substrate including a display area and a non-display area (Huang: Para. [0026], [0032], Fig. 1A-2); and
the one or more light emitting devices provided on the one or more first electrodes (Huang: Para. [0043], [0060], Fig. 2, the light emitting device 122 may comprise a first electrode 1221 and the first electrode 1221 of the light emitting device 122 is coupled to the first electrode 21 through the via hole 25).
Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the apparatus, as taught by Yang, to incorporate the explicit physical OLED substrate and electrode configuration, as taught by Huang, in order to provide a standard, reliable, and well-understood matrix capable of supporting in-cell touch and display multiplexing operations (Huang: Para. [0008]).
With respect to Claim 2, the combination of Yang as modified by Huang teaches the display apparatus of claim 1, wherein the display apparatus is configured to use at least two second electrodes among the plurality of second electrodes connected to the pixel driving circuit as one touch electrode (Yang: Col. 5, lines 24-39).
With respect to Claim 3, the combination of Yang as modified by Huang teaches the display apparatus of claim 2, wherein each of the at least two second electrodes extends along a first direction of the substrate, and the at least two second electrodes are provided along a second direction of the substrate that is different from the first direction of the substrate (Yang: Col. 5, lines 24-39).
With respect to Claim 4, the combination of Yang as modified by Huang teaches the display apparatus of claim 3, wherein, for each second electrode of the at least two second electrodes, the display apparatus is configured to emit light from the light emitting devices connected to the second electrode when a cathode voltage is supplied to the second electrodes (Yang: Col. 5, line 24 – Col. 6, line 10).
With respect to Claim 5, the combination of Yang as modified by Huang teaches the display apparatus of claim 3, wherein the display apparatus is configured to simultaneously supply a touch driving signal to the at least two second electrodes when the display apparatus uses the at least two second electrodes as one touch electrode (Yang: Col. 5, lines 24-39).
With respect to Claim 6, the combination of Yang as modified by Huang teaches the display apparatus of claim 1, wherein the pixel driving circuit further comprises a control switching part configured to supply a cathode voltage to the plurality of second electrodes during a display period and to connect the sensing circuit to the plurality of second electrodes during a touch sensing period (Yang: Col. 6, lines 38-46 , Fig. 2).
With respect to Claim 7, the combination of Yang as modified by Huang teaches the display apparatus of claim 1, wherein the pixel driving circuit further comprises a sub-pixel driving part configured to supply anode voltages to the one or more first electrodes (Yang: Col. 9, lines 19-31).
With respect to Claim 8, the combination of Yang as modified by Huang teaches the display apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a display driver configured to transmit a touch enable signal to the sensing switch (Yang: Col. 9, lines 27-35, Fig. 3).
With respect to Claim 9, the combination of Yang as modified by Huang teaches the display apparatus of claim 8, wherein the display driver is configured to transmit a touch enable pulse, which constitutes the touch enable signal, to the sensing switch when the display driver receives a touch synchronization signal that includes a touch signal indicating a touch sensing period, and the touch synchronization signal distinguishes the touch sensing period from a display period (Yang: Col. 9, lines 27-35, Fig. 3).
With respect to Claim 10, the combination of Yang as modified by Huang teaches the display apparatus of claim 9, wherein the sensing switch is configured to connect the power circuit to the sensing circuit when the sensing switch receives the touch enable pulse (Huang: Para. [0071], [0074], Fig. 5).
With respect to Claim 11, the combination of Yang as modified by Huang teaches the display apparatus of claim 10, wherein the sensing circuit is configured to be driven by power supplied from the power circuit and to supply the touch driving signal to the plurality of second electrodes (Huang: Para. [0068], [0074], Fig. 5)
With respect to Claim 12, the combination of Yang as modified by Huang teaches the display apparatus of claim 10, wherein the sensing switch is configured to disconnect the power circuit from the sensing circuit when the sensing switch does not receive the touch enable pulse (Huang: Para. [0075], Fig. 5).
With respect to Claim 13, the combination of Yang as modified by Huang teaches the display apparatus of claim 9, wherein a width of the touch enable pulse is less than or equal to a width of the touch signal (Huang: Para. [0124], Fig. 9).
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang and Huang, as applied to claims 1-13 above, and further in view of Lim (US 2023/0049665
With respect to Claim 14, the combination of Yang as modified by Huang teaches the display apparatus of claim 9.
Yang and Huang fail to expressly disclose:
wherein the display driver is configured to sequentially transmit a first enable pulse and a second enable pulse to the sensing switch when the display driver receives the touch synchronization signal that includes the touch signal indicating the touch sensing period.
However, Lim discloses:
wherein the display driver is configured to sequentially transmit a first enable pulse and a second enable pulse to the sensing switch when the display driver receives the touch synchronization signal that includes the touch signal indicating the touch sensing period (Lim: Para. [0031]).
Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the apparatus, as taught by Yang and Huang, to incorporate sequential driving pulses within the touch sensing period, as taught by Lim, in order to improve touch sensitivity (Lim: Pare [0227]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15-16 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRYAN EARLES whose telephone number is (571)272-4628. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Thursday at 7:30am - 5:00pm.
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/BRYAN EARLES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2625
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