Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics
534 pending office actions • 136 art units • 407 examiners • 0 of 534 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 758 patents granted in the last 365 days
Texas Instruments Incorporated maintains a massive portfolio in the Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics technology area with 567 pending office actions. These matters are distributed across 121 distinct art units, reflecting an extremely broad range of semiconductor and circuit innovations. The prosecution involves 422 distinct examiners, requiring the management of a vast number of individual examiner relationships. This high level of fragmentation across 121 distinct art units suggests that the company's filings touch on nearly every specialized group within the semiconductor sector.
Keith E Vicary is the busiest examiner for the company, currently managing 6 pending office actions. Despite this concentration, the overall workload is decentralized, as evidenced by the 422 distinct examiners involved. This decentralization means that no single examiner has a significant impact on the overall portfolio, but it also presents a challenge in maintaining consistency across many different cases. For a practitioner, the presence of 121 distinct art units means that the company must be prepared for a wide variety of examination styles and internal office policies. With 567 pending office actions, the portfolio represents one of the most significant and diverse efforts at the patent office.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 159 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date; the rest are excluded from the tile counts.
Every pending office action with a known statutory deadline, placed on a days-until-due axis. Dots left of Today are overdue; the further right, the more runway. Cases that share a deadline window stack vertically. 159 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date.
Difficulty is derived from the rejection statutes on the most recent pending office action. §101-driven and multi-statute cases are graded Hard; §112-only and obviousness-type double-patenting cases are graded Easy; everything else is Medium. "Unknown" means we have not yet parsed a statute for that office action.
| Bucket | Cases |
|---|---|
| §101 only | 8 (1%) |
| §101 + other | 21 (4%) |
| §103 only | 161 (30%) |
| §102 only | 51 (10%) |
| §112 only | 27 (5%) |
| Double-patenting only | 19 (4%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 15 (3%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 220 (41%) |
| No statute on record | 12 (2%) |
How the docket's pending cases split across USPTO tech-center bands.
Manual office-action response work runs about 10 hours per case. The time-saved bands below show what IP Author's prosecution pipeline typically delivers — a conservative 20% on the low end, 35% in the middle, 50% on the high end.
| Examiner | Apps on this docket | Allow rate | Interview lift |
|---|---|---|---|
| VICARY, KEITH E | 6 | 57.7% | +40.3% |
| HILTUNEN, THOMAS J | 5 | 81.5% | +6.1% |
| ARROYO, TERESA M | 5 | 71.9% | +23.2% |
| LEE, JYE-JUNE | 4 | 84.9% | +3.6% |
| MOJADDEDI, OMAR F | 4 | 89.5% | +10.4% |
| TORRES-RIVERA, ALEX | 4 | 86.7% | +11.3% |
| NGUYEN, HIEU P | 4 | 92.0% | +5.2% |
| CAULK, JENNIFER CHRISTINE | 4 | 100.0% | +0.0% |
| WARD, ERIC A | 4 | 78.1% | +13.4% |
| KIM, SEOKJIN | 3 | 78.1% | +13.6% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 8 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18989855 | CASCODE VOLTAGE REGULATOR CIRCUIT | HILTUNEN, THOMAS J | — |
| 18789103 | METHODS AND APPARATUS TO DYNAMICALLY INCREASE AMPLIFIER SLEW RATES | NGUYEN, HIEU P | — |
| 18761382 | SWITCHING AMPLIFIER HAVING LINEAR TRANSITION TOTEM POLE MODULATION | NGUYEN, HIEU P | — |
| 18746144 | AUTOMATIC FREQUENCY OSCILLATOR FOR PULSE-REGULATED SWITCH-MODE POWER SUPPLY | TORRES-RIVERA, ALEX | — |
| 18735396 | CURRENT SENSING IN A MULTIPHASE POWER CONVERTER | CAULK, JENNIFER CHRISTINE | — |
| 18678694 | PULSE FREQUENCY MODULATION (PFM) MODE FOR A MULTIPHASE CONVERTER | HILTUNEN, THOMAS J | — |
| 18428982 | METHODS AND APPARATUS TO REJECT CURRENT RIPPLE | NGUYEN, HIEU P | — |
| 18143446 | HIGH THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY VIAS BY ADDITIVE PROCESSING | MOJADDEDI, OMAR F | — |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 8 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18091349 | PACKAGE SUBSTRATE HAVING DEPRESSION | MOJADDEDI, OMAR F | 121d overdue |
| 17096898 | Fail Density-Based Clustering for Yield Loss Detection | PARK, HYUN D | 119d overdue |
| 18426174 | INSTRUCTION TO PAUSE SERVICING OF INTERRUPTS BASED ON A SPECIFIED COUNT | MEHTA, JYOTI | 111d overdue |
| 18620073 | HALL SENSOR WITH MAGNETIC CONCENTRATORS | SCHINDLER, DAVID M | 103d overdue |
| 18082285 | INTEGRATED CIRCUIT HAVING EXPOSED LEADS | DAS, PINAKI | 100d overdue |
| 17488891 | STAIR STEP FRAME STRUCTURES IN PIEZOELECTRIC RESONATORS | ROSENAU, DEREK JOHN | 100d overdue |
| 18081637 | FLUID SENSOR PACKAGE | FITZGERALD, JOHN P | 77d overdue |
| 18345186 | OPEN CAVITY SENSOR | MELLINGER, CORBYN DAVID | 73d overdue |
Cases in front of an examiner whose interview lift is 10 percentage points or more — i.e. interviewed cases historically resolve more favorably than non-interviewed ones. The top 8 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18091349 | PACKAGE SUBSTRATE HAVING DEPRESSION | MOJADDEDI, OMAR F | 121d overdue |
| 16422754 | VECTOR FLOATING-POINT SCALE | VICARY, KEITH E | 71d overdue |
| 18652901 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ARC REDUCTION IN POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS | KIM, SEOKJIN | 42d overdue |
| 17508009 | IC PACKAGE WITH INTERFACE REGION | ARROYO, TERESA M | 25d overdue |
| 18375214 | METHODS AND APPARATUS TO CONTROL SWITCHING CONVERTERS USING PEAK AND VALLEY CONTROL | TORRES-RIVERA, ALEX | 18d overdue |
| 18050458 | INSULATION FOR MAGNETIC-MOLDING COMPOUND (MMC) MODULE | ARROYO, TERESA M | 15d overdue |
| 18525464 | INPUT STAGES FOR OPTO-EMULATORS | KIM, SEOKJIN | 9d overdue |
| 17806959 | GAN DEVICE WITH EXTENDED DRAIN CONTACT | WARD, ERIC A | 14d |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 2838 | 49 |
| 2898 | 24 |
| 2893 | 23 |
| 2858 | 22 |
| 2843 | 19 |
| 2897 | 18 |
| 2183 | 16 |
| 2812 | 16 |
| 2849 | 13 |
| 2899 | 11 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19312885 | CONTEXT-SENSITIVE DEBUG REQUESTS FOR MEMORY ACCESS | DUNCAN, MARC M | 2113 | §102DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 28, 2025 |
| 19310128 | VIDEO CONTENT DELIVERY METHODS | KWAN, MATTHEW K | 2482 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 26, 2025 |
| 19309051 | LOW AREA AND POWER MULTI-BIT FLIP-FLOP | O NEILL, PATRICK | 2836 | §112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 25, 2025 |
| 19307229 | VIDEO ENCODING AND DISTRIBUTION METHODS | BECKER, JOSEPH W | 2483 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 13d | Pending | Aug 22, 2025 |
| 19281842 | THREE LEVEL SWITCHING CONVERTER AND CONTROL | LE, TUNG X | 2845 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 28, 2025 |
| 19276781 | METHODS AND APPARATUS TO FACILITATE WRITE MISS CACHING IN CACHE SYSTEM | CHOI, CHARLES J | 2133 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 22, 2025 |
| 19275153 | High Voltage Converter Power Stage | HILTUNEN, THOMAS J | 2849 | §101§102§103§112Other | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 21, 2025 |
| 19273531 | DELAYED SNOOP FOR MULTI-CACHE SYSTEMS | NGUYEN, THAN VINH | 2138 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 18, 2025 |
| 19274117 | CONDITIONAL BRANCH INSTRUCTIONS | DOMAN, SHAWN | 2183 | §103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 18, 2025 |
| 19272985 | OSCILLATOR FREQUENCY BASED ON MOBILITY AND PTAT TEMPERATURE COMPENSATION | CHANG, JOSEPH | 2836 | §101§102Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 17, 2025 |
| 19267756 | ADDRESS SPACE MAPPING | DOAN, KHOA D | 2133 | Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 14, 2025 |
| 19263644 | MEMORY CONTROLLER WITH COMMAND REORDERING | RUIZ, ARACELIS | 2139 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 09, 2025 |
| 19261361 | SIMPLIFIED CONTEXT SELECTION FOR ENTROPY CODING OF TRANSFORM COEFFICIENT SYNTAX ELEMENTS | PHILIPPE, GIMS S | 2424 | §103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 07, 2025 |
| 19257672 | METHODS AND APPARATUS TO FACILITATE READ-MODIFY-WRITE SUPPORT IN A COHERENT VICTIM CACHE WITH PARALLEL DATA PATHS | HASAN, MOHAMMAD S | 2139 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 02, 2025 |
| 19256267 | DATA PROCESSING APPARATUS HAVING STREAMING ENGINE WITH READ AND READ/ADVANCE OPERAND CODING | DOMAN, SHAWN | 2183 | §103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 01, 2025 |
| 19254068 | SAMPLER CIRCUIT FOR HIGH SPEED SERIALIZER/DESERIALIZER | CORRIELUS, JEAN B | 2631 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 30, 2025 |
| 19251892 | REJECTION OF END-OF-PACKET DRIBBLE IN HIGH SPEED UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS REPEATERS | HUANG, DAVID S | 2631 | §102§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 27, 2025 |
| 19246125 | CREDIT AWARE CENTRAL ARBITRATION FOR MULTI-ENDPOINT, MULTI-CORE SYSTEM | GOLDSCHMIDT, CRAIG S | 2139 | §112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 23, 2025 |
| 19244063 | STREAMING ENGINE WITH SEPARATELY SELECTABLE ELEMENT AND GROUP DUPLICATION | PETRANEK, JACOB ANDREW | 2139 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 20, 2025 |
| 19238783 | Reducing Target Frequency Variation In Oscillator | CHANG, JOSEPH | 2849 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 16, 2025 |
| 19237202 | NOISE ESTIMATION USING USER-CONFIGURABLE INFORMATION | CHIU, WESLEY JASON | 2639 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 13, 2025 |
| 19230213 | ENHANCED CHANNEL HOPPING SEQUENCE | MALEK, LEILA | 2632 | §112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 06, 2025 |
| 19229189 | MULTICHANNEL MEMORY ARBITRATION AND INTERLEAVING SCHEME | HASSAN, AURANGZEB | 2184 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 05, 2025 |
| 19227833 | CIRCUIT AND METHOD FOR INCREASED BIT DEPTH IN HIGH FRAME RATE APPLICATIONS | CERULLO, LILIANA P | 2621 | §102§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jun 04, 2025 |
| 19224981 | ENTERING PROTECTED PIPELINE MODE WITH CLEARING | LINDLOF, JOHN M | 2183 | §103DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 02, 2025 |
| 19224972 | METHODS AND APPARATUS TO ENABLE STATUS CHANGE DETECTION IN A LOW POWER MODE OF A MICROCONTROLLER UNIT | CLEARY, THOMAS J | 2175 | §102§103DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 02, 2025 |
| 19224618 | CONFIGURABLE FREQUENCY-LOCKED LOOP/PHASE-LOCKED LOOP OSCILLATOR | KINKEAD, ARNOLD M | 2849 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 30, 2025 |
| 19219517 | BOOTSTRAP CAPACITANCE CHARGING SCHEME FOR GALLIUM NITRIDE BASED BRIDGE DRIVER | O NEILL, PATRICK | 2836 | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 27, 2025 |
| 19217538 | SALTED KEY REFRESHMENT | WALIULLAH, MOHAMMED | 2498 | Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 23, 2025 |
| 19214148 | Calibration in Non-Linear Multi-Stage Delay-to-Digital Conversion Circuits | JEANGLAUDE, JEAN BRUNER | 2845 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 21, 2025 |
| 19206182 | SECURING REGISTERS ACROSS SECURITY ZONES | VICARY, KEITH E | 2183 | §103§112Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 13, 2025 |
| 19199662 | HARDWARE COHERENCE FOR MEMORY CONTROLLER | YU, JAE UN | — | Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 06, 2025 |
| 19196827 | ANTENNA-ON-PACKAGE SYSTEM | CHANG, DANIEL D | 2845 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 02, 2025 |
| 19193810 | System and Method for Adaptive Gate Drive Current Circuit | LEE, JYE-JUNE | 2838 | §101 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 29, 2025 |
| 19192522 | METHODS AND APPARATUS TO FACILITATE ATOMIC OPERATIONS IN VICTIM CACHE | NGUYEN, VIET Q | 2827 | §112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 29, 2025 |
| 19179077 | VECTOR REVERSE | ABAD, FARLEY J | 2181 | §103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 15, 2025 |
| 19173134 | FREQUENCY-DIVISION MULTIPLEXING | AGHDAM, FRESHTEH N | 2632 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 08, 2025 |
| 19088488 | COMMUNICATION EXTENSION THROUGH INTERMEDIARY NODE | ARTHUR JEANGLAUDE, GERTRUDE | 3661 | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 24, 2025 |
| 19084839 | SECURE SNIFFING OF WIRELESS CONNECTIONS WITH FORWARD SECRECY | GEE, JASON KAI YIN | 2495 | §101§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 20, 2025 |
| 19079072 | OCCUPANCY DETECTION USING RADAR | LE, HAILEY R | 3648 | §101§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 13, 2025 |
| 19075937 | PROCESSOR MICRO-ARCHITECTURE FOR REPEATED INSTRUCTION EXECUTION | SPANN, COURTNEY P | 2183 | §101Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 11, 2025 |
| 19071090 | HYBRID VICTIM CACHE AND WRITE MISS BUFFER WITH FENCE OPERATION | TALUKDAR, ARVIND | — | Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 05, 2025 |
| 19069543 | SYSTEM ON A CHIP WITH AN INTEGRATED CONFIGURABLE SAFETY MASTER MICROCONTROLLER UNIT | SUN, SCOTT C | 2181 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 04, 2025 |
| 19068702 | ANTENNA IN PACKAGE HAVING ANTENNA ON PACKAGE SUBSTRATE | KIM, SEOKJIN | 2844 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 03, 2025 |
| 19065252 | SWITCH CONTROLLER WITH ADAPTIVE CONTROL OF REFERENCE AND BACK-GATE VOLTAGES | COX, CASSANDRA F | 2836 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 27, 2025 |
| 19065054 | SWITCH CONTROLLER WITH SEESAW DRIVER AND SWITCHING MODE DETECTION | COX, CASSANDRA F | 2849 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 27, 2025 |
| 19064074 | METHODS AND APPARATUS TO INTERPOLATE BETWEEN VOLTAGES IN A DELAY DOMAIN | NGUYEN, KHAI M | 2845 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 26, 2025 |
| 19061704 | METHODS AND APPARATUS TO CAPTURE SWITCH CHARGE INJECTIONS AND COMPARATOR KICKBACK EFFECTS | NGUYEN, KHAI M | 2845 | §101DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 24, 2025 |
| 19059395 | SHORT DETECTION CIRCUIT | LEE, JYE-JUNE | 2838 | §103§112Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 21, 2025 |
| 19053308 | READ-MODIFY-WRITE MANAGER WITH ARITHMETIC CIRCUIT | AYASH, MARWAN | 2133 | §101§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 13, 2025 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free TrialTexas Instruments Incorporated has 534 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 136 art units and 407 examiners.
Keith E Vicary has the most, with 6 of Texas Instruments Incorporated's pending office actions.
Mostly Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics (USPTO Tech Center 2800), based on where its pending office actions are examined.