Ex Parte Gerber et alDownload PDFPatent Trials and Appeals BoardMay 28, 201915132294 - (D) (P.T.A.B. May. 28, 2019) Copy Citation UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE 15/132,294 04/19/2016 23494 7590 05/30/2019 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS IN CORPORA TED PO BOX 655474, MIS 3999 DALLAS, TX 75265 FIRST NAMED INVENTOR Johannes Gerber UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O. Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www .uspto.gov ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. TI-73585A 1020 EXAMINER NASH,GARYA ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 2838 NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE 05/30/2019 ELECTRONIC Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the following e-mail address(es): uspto@ti.com PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD Ex parte JOHANNES GERBER, MATTHIAS ARNOLD, and RONALD NERLICH Appeal 2018-006999 Application 15/132,294 Technology Center 2800 Before N. WHITNEY WILSON, JEFFREY R. SNAY, and LILAN REN, Administrative Patent Judges. WILSON, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL Appellant1 appeals under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from the Examiner's April 6, 2017 decision finally rejecting claims 2 and 3, which are all of the pending claims. We have jurisdiction over the appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b ). We affirm. 1 Appellant is the Applicant, Texas Instruments Deutschland GMBH. Texas Instruments Incorporated is said to be the real party in interest (Br. 1 ). Appeal 2018-006999 Application 15/132,294 CLAIMED SUBJECT MATTER Appellant's disclosure generally relates to a method for controlling the provision of voltage to microcontrollers, processors, and related peripherals, and more specifically, to controlling the voltage output from a low drop-out voltage regulator (LDO) (Spec. ,-J 2). LDO's are said to monitor an aspect of the power applied to an electronic device such as a microprocessor or associated peripheral and provide a feedback that allows control circuitry to maintain the power within certain parameters (Spec. ,-J 4 ). The Specification describes one problem with prior art LDO' s as their inability to keep up the power management features in the face of a sudden drop in applied voltage (A VDD) (Spec. ,-J 6). Appellant attempts to address this deficiency by use of an apparatus as set forth in independent claim 2, which is reproduced below from the Claims Appendix of the Appeal Brief ( emphasis added): 2. An apparatus for detecting load on an input power, the apparatus comprising: a low dropout voltage regulator circuit configured to provide an output voltage to a load; a current mode comparator circuit connected to the low dropout voltage regulator circuit to monitor a low dropout voltage regulator circuit current driven by the output voltage of the low dropout voltage regulator circuit; wherein the current mode comparator circuit is configured to monitor the low dropout voltage regulator circuit current in a discrete time mixed analog/digital approach; wherein the low dropout voltage regulator circuit comprises a feedback loop transistor connected to pass the low dropout voltage regulator circuit current driven by the output voltage; and wherein the current mode comparator circuit comprises: a sensing transistor connected in parallel with the feedback loop transistor and configured to output a sensing current proportional to the low dropout voltage regulator circuit current; 2 Appeal 2018-006999 Application 15/132,294 a reference current source configured to provide a reference current; a comparator circuit configured to perform a comparison between the sensing current and the reference current and to output a comparison signal based on the comparison. REJECTION Claims 2 and 3 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(l) as anticipated by Lin.2 DISCUSSION "A prior art reference anticipates a patent claim under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) ifit discloses every claim limitation." In re Montgomery, 677 F.3d 1375, 1379 (Fed. Cir. 2012) (citing Verizon Servs. Corp. v. Cox Fibernet Va., Inc., 602 F.3d 1325, 1336-37 (Fed. Cir. 2010)). In this instance, with regard to independent claim 2, Appellant argues that Lin does not disclose the claimed "reference current source configured to provide a reference current" (Br. 4). In particular, Appellant contends that Lin teaches a voltage reference, Refl to RefN, not a reference current (id., citing Lin, ,i 23). In response, the Examiner finds that one of ordinary skill in the art would understand that "a voltage signal is indicative of a current signal," and cites directly to Lin, which explicitly states that "[t]he current signal (in the form of a voltage signal corresponding to the current flowing through the power transistor 12) is compared with .... " (Ans. 2-3, citing Lin, ,i 23). Appellant does not contest this finding. Thus, the evidence of record 2 Lin et al., US 2009/0189577 Al, published July 30, 2009. 3 Appeal 2018-006999 Application 15/132,294 supports the Examiner's finding that Lin discloses the claimed reference current. Based on the arguments and evidence of record, Appellant has not demonstrated reversible error in the Examiner's finding of anticipation. Therefore, we affirm the rejection. CONCLUSION We AFFIRM the rejection of claims 2 and 3 under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(l) as anticipated by Lin. No time period for taking any subsequent action in connection with this appeal may be extended under 37 C.F.R. § l .136(a)(l )(iv). AFFIRMED 4 Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation