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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 01/20/2026 has been entered.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-2, 6, 10-11 and 13-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over GOTO et al. (WO2018179774 A1, hereinafter GOTO) in view of DIJKHUIZEN et al. (US 2016/0126737 A1, hereinafter DIJKHUIZEN).
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Regarding claim 1, GOTO discloses a power supply system comprising:
a power supply circuit that including a plurality of battery modules (See Fig. and Par.15, disclose a power supply circuit 100 comprising a plurality of battery modules 102a-102n),
each of the battery modules having a battery (See Fig.1, Items#10), and
the power supply circuit being configured to transfer a gate driving signal from a controller (See Fig.1, Item#104 and Par.15, disclose a control unit) between the battery modules (See Fig.1, Items#102a-102n) such that the batteries in the battery modules are connected to each other in a series connection (See Fig.1, Items#20 and Par.20, disclose delay circuits which delay a gate signal transmitted from control unit 40 such that the gate signal is sequentially transmitted to each battery module with a predetermined delay time); and
each of the battery modules includes:
a first switch element configured to be turned on or off in response to the gate driving signal to disconnect the battery from the series connection (See Fig.1, Item#16 discloses a switch which when turned on bypasses “disconnects” the corresponding battery), the first switch element comprising an AND circuit element (See Fig.1 discloses each battery circuit comprising “AND” element);
a second switch element configured to be turned on or off in response to the gate driving signal to connect the battery in series (See Fig.1, Item#18 and Par.25 disclose a second switch which is alternately turned on when the switch 16 is turned off), the second switch element comprising an OR circuit element (See Fig.1, discloses each battery circuit comprising “OR” element); and
a gate driving signal processing circuit configured to delay the gate driving signal at regular time intervals and transmit the gate driving signal to a next-stage battery module connected in series (See Fig.1 and Par.20 disclose each battery module 102a-102n includes a delay circuit 20, the signal is provided from the control unit 104 and is sequentially provided to each following battery module via the delay circuit).
However, GOTO does not disclose a plurality of power supply circuits, each power supply circuit among the plurality of power supply circuits outputs an alternating current voltage having a different phase by temporally changing the number of the batteries connected in series.
DIJKHUIZEN discloses a system comprising a plurality of power supply circuits, each power supply circuit among the plurality of power supply circuits outputs an alternating current voltage having a different phase by temporally changing the number of the batteries connected in series. (See Fig.1, and Par.43, disclose a three phase AC circuit comprising providing three phases A, B and C, and each phase comprising a leg 10, 20 and 30. Each leg comprising a plurality of switching cells 1A-n, 21A-n and 31A-n. Par.50, disclose selecting the energy storage elements in each leg of the 3 phase legs in order to output the desired phase voltage).
GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN are analogous art since they both deal with power supply circuits.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by GOTO with the further teachings of DIJKHUIZEN by providing the power source disclosed by GOTO to each of a plurality of legs of a 3 phase AC power supply for the benefit of providing a 3 phase power supply system which can provide power to a 3 phase system or load while also suppressing imbalance between the state of charge (SOC) of the battery modules.
Regarding claim 2, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN disclose the power supply system according to claim 1 as discussed above, wherein the gate driving signal is given from the controller to each of the power supply circuits (See GOTO, Fig.1, discloses a gate driving signal generated by control circuit 104 and the signal is received by delay circuit 20. GOTO as modified by DIJKHUIZEN as applied to claim 1 rejection discloses three phase legs each comprising the power supply circuit 100 in Fig.1 of GOTO and each receiving a gate driving signal sent to delay circuits).
Regarding claim 6, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN disclose the power supply system according to claim 1 as discussed above, wherein the power supply circuit has a configuration in which the battery modules are divided into a plurality of sub-battery module groups (See GOTO, Fig.1, discloses each module [for example 102a]) comprising a plurality of batteries 10 [fig.1 discloses each module comprising 6 batteries, the examiner interprets that each module is comprised of 2 submodules each including 3 battery cells) where the battery modules are connected in series, and positive electrode sides or negative electrode sides of one of the sub-battery module groups and another of the sub-battery module groups are connected to each other (See GOTO, Fig.1, discloses battery modules 102a-102n are connected in series where a positive terminal of one sub-module is connected to the negative terminal of the next sub-module).
Regarding claim 10, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN disclose the power supply system according to claim 1 as discussed above, further comprising:
a battery level estimation unit configured to estimate a stored power amount of the power supply circuit (See GOTO, Par.59-61, disclose control performed to eliminate state of charge imbalance, Par.61 discloses estimating the SOC of all battery modules), wherein
a power command value used for determining an output power of the power supply circuit is set according to the stored power amount (See GOTO, Par.62, discloses the SOCs of the battery modules are compared with respect to a reference value SOC to determine which battery module may be selected).
Regarding claim 11, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN disclose the power supply system according to claim 1 as discussed above, further comprising:
current sensors, each of which is directly or indirectly connected to the power supply circuit and configured to detect a phase current in a system of each phase of the alternating current voltage having phases that are different from each other (See GOTO Fig.1, Item#32 and Par.61, disclose a current sensor that detects input and output current in the power supply circuit); and
voltage sensors configured to detect a phase voltage in the system (See GOTO, Fig.1, Item#34 and Par.61, disclose detecting the phase voltage. GOTO as modified by DIJKHUIZEN as applied to claim 1 includes 3 phase legs as shown in DIJKHUIZEN Fig.3),
wherein the power supply circuit is controlled according to the phase current and the phase voltage (See GOTO, Par.62, discloses that the voltage and current measurements are used to determine SOC and that selection of battery modules is based on the determined SOC).
NOTE: DIJKHUIZEN also discloses in Fig.1 a plurality of current sensors [18,28,38] for monitoring phase currents, the controller 50 also determines the voltages of each energy element and controls the switching [selection] of cells such that the phase legs together provide the desired output voltage.
Regarding claim 13, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN disclose the power supply system according to claim 1 as discussed above, further comprising:
a forcible disconnection unit configured to forcibly disconnect the battery in the battery module from the series connection regardless of the gate driving signal (See GOTO Fig.1, discloses “AND” gate [22] and Par.65, discloses forcibly disconnecting a battery module 102 by outputting a forced disconnected low (L) signal to the AND gate element of the battery module. Pars.8 and 51 disclose that a module is forcibly disconnected regardless of the gate signal which is sent from the control unit 104 to the delay circuit 20).
Regarding claim 14, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN disclose the power supply system according to claim 13, further comprising:
a state detection unit configured to detect voltage information of the battery included in each of the battery modules (See GOTO, Fig.1, Items#30, disclose a plurality of voltage sensors for detecting the voltage of each battery module); and
a battery state estimation unit configured to estimate a state of the battery using the voltage information (See GOTO Fig.1, Item#104 and Par.53, disclose the control unit uses voltage data to determine the SOC of each module),
wherein the battery in each of the battery modules is forcibly disconnected from the series connection by the forcible disconnection unit according to the state of the battery estimated by the battery state estimation unit (See GOTO Par.54, discloses after the SOC of all battery modules are determined, the control unit selects batteries with low SOC. GOTO, Par.57 also discloses that the selected low SOC batter modules are forcibly disconnected and no longer contribute to the output of the power supply).
Regarding claim 15, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN disclose the power supply system according to claim 1 as discussed above, further comprising:
a forcible connection unit (See GOTO, Fig.1, Item#24, discloses an “OR” gate) configured to forcibly connect the battery in each of the battery modules to the series connection regardless of the gate driving signal (See GOTO, Par.68-68, disclose transmitting a high “H” signal to the “OR” gate to forcibly connect the corresponding battery module. Par.9, discloses the module is forcibly connected regardless of the gate signal).
Regarding claim 16, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN disclose the power supply system according to claim 15 as discussed above, further comprising:
a state detection unit configured to detect voltage information of the battery included in each of the battery modules (See GOTO, Fig.1, Items#30, disclose a plurality of voltage detection circuits each connected to each battery module 102);
a battery state estimation unit configured to estimate a state of the battery using the voltage information (See GOTO, Par.71-72, discloses the controller determines the SOC of each battery module based on voltage data and compares the determines SOC and selects the battery modules to be connected),
wherein the battery in each of the battery modules is forcibly connected to the series connection by the forcible connection unit according to the state of the battery estimated by the battery state estimation unit (See GOTO Par.74, discloses forcibly connecting the selected battery modules).
Claim(s) 4-5, 7 and 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over GOTO in view of DIJKHUIZEN and in further view of YOO (US 2013/0093376 A1, hereinafter YOO).
Regarding claim 4, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN disclose the power supply system according to claim 3, However, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN as applied to claim 3 do not disclose wherein:
each of the battery modules is a half-bridge module including the first switch element and the second switch element; and
an alternating current voltage without an offset voltage is output as a difference between voltages output by the power supply circuits, by outputting an alternating current voltage having the same offset voltage in each of the power supply circuits.
DIJKHUIZEN further discloses each of the battery modules is a half-bridge module including the first switch element and the second switch element (See Pars.23 and 45, disclose each cell may comprise half H-bridge/half bridge switching configuration).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN as applied to claim 3 with the further teachings of DIJKHUIZEN by adding the disclosed half-bridge for the benefit of converting the DC voltage of each energy source into an AC voltage.
However, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN do not disclose an alternating current voltage without an offset voltage is output as a difference between voltages output by the power supply circuits, by outputting an alternating current voltage having the same offset voltage in each of the power supply circuits.
YOO discloses a regenerative medium voltage inverter comprising a plurality of power supply circuits each comprising a plurality of battery modules (See Fig.3, discloses 3 power supply circuits A1-A3, B1-B3 and C1-C3), wherein:
an alternating current voltage without an offset voltage is output in each of the power supply circuits (See Fig.8 and Par.62, discloses that voltages Vab, Vbc and Vca are out of phase by 120 degrees. No offset in voltage is interpreted to mean that the output voltages are evenly spaced in time).
GOTO, DIJKHUIZEN and YOO are analogous art since they all deal with power supply circuits.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN with the further teachings of YOO by using a half-bridge module to generate an alternating current voltage without an offset voltage is output in each of the power supply circuits for the benefit of providing a balanced AC 3-phase system wherein the sum of voltages at any given point in time is zero which leads to smoother power delivery and reduced energy loss.
Regarding claim 5, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN disclose the power supply system according to claim 3 as discussed above, However, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN do not disclose wherein:
each of the battery modules is a full-bridge module including the first switch element and the second switch element; and
an alternating current voltage without an offset voltage is output in each of the power supply circuits.
YOO discloses a regenerative medium voltage inverter comprising a plurality of power supply circuits each comprising a plurality of battery modules (See Fig.3, discloses 3 power supply circuits A1-A3, B1-B3 and C1-C3), wherein:
each of the battery modules is a full-bridge module including the first switch element and the second switch element (See Fig.6, Item#14, discloses a full bridge module comprising a first switch 63a and second switch 63d); and
an alternating current voltage without an offset voltage is output in each of the power supply circuits (See Fig.8 and Par.62, discloses that voltages Vab, Vbc and Vca are out of phase by 120 degrees. No offset in voltage is interpreted to mean that the output voltages are evenly spaced in time).
GOTO, DIJKHUIZEN and YOO are analogous art since they all deal with power supply circuits.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN with the further teachings of YOO by using a full-bridge module to generate an alternating current voltage without an offset voltage is output in each of the power supply circuits for the benefit of providing a balanced AC 3 phase system wherein the sum of voltages at any given point in time is zero which leads to smoother power delivery and reduced energy loss.
Regarding claim 7, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN disclose the power supply system according to claim 1 as discussed above, However, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN as applied to claim 1 do not disclose wherein the power supply circuits are Y-connected to each other to generate a three-phase alternating current voltage in which voltages have different phases from each other by 120 ͦ.
DIJKHUIZEN further discloses wherein the power supply circuits are Y-connected to each other to generate a three-phase alternating current voltage in which voltages have different phases from each other by 120 ͦ (See Par.4-5, disclose connecting phase legs in a Wye connection. The examiner explains that it is implicit that in a Wye-connection the outputs are 120 degrees out of phase from one another).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN as applied to claim 1 with the further teachings of DIJKHUIZEN by using the Wye connection for the benefit of providing a balanced AC 3 phase system wherein the sum of voltages at any given point in time is zero which leads to smoother power delivery and reduced energy loss.
In case the applicant disagrees with the examiner’s assertion that the 120-degree different in implicitly disclosed in disclosing the Wye-connection. The examiner provided YOO to address the limitation.
YOO discloses a regenerative medium voltage inverter comprising a plurality of power supply circuits each comprising a plurality of battery modules (See Fig.3, discloses 3 power supply circuits A1-A3, B1-B3 and C1-C3), wherein:
connected to each other to generate a three-phase alternating current voltage in which voltages have different phases from each other by 120 ͦ (See Fig.8 and Par.62, discloses that voltages Vab, Vbc and Vca are out of phase by 120 degrees. No offset in voltage is interpreted to mean that the output voltages are evenly spaced in time).
GOTO, DIJKHUIZEN and YOO are analogous art since they all deal with power supply circuits.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN with the further teachings of YOO such that the power supply circuits are connected to each other to generate a three-phase alternating current voltage in which voltages have different phases from each other by 120 ͦ for the benefit of providing a balanced AC 3-phase system wherein the sum of voltages at any given point in time is zero which leads to smoother power delivery and reduced energy loss.
Regarding claim 12, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN disclose the power supply system according to claim 1 as discussed above, However, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN as applied to claim 1 do not disclose wherein a plurality of power supply circuits are connected in parallel for each phase of the alternating current voltage having phases that are different from each other.
DIJKHUIZEN further discloses a plurality of power supply circuits are connected in parallel (See Fig.1, Items#10, 20 and 30, disclose a plurality of phase legs connected in parallel).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the invention disclosed by GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN as applied to claim 1 with the further teachings of DIJKHUIZEN by having a three-phase system comprising a plurality of power supply circuits connected in parallel for the benefit of providing power to a three-phase load.
However, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN do not disclose each phase of the alternating current voltage having phases that are different from each other.
YOO discloses a regenerative medium voltage inverter comprising a plurality of power supply circuits each comprising a plurality of battery modules (See Fig.3, discloses 3 power supply circuits A1-A3, B1-B3 and C1-C3), wherein:
the plurality of power supply circuits are connected in parallel for each phase of the alternating current voltage having phases that are different from each other (See Fig.8 and Par.62, discloses that voltages Vab, Vbc and Vca are out of phase by 120 degrees.).
GOTO, DIJKHUIZEN and YOO are analogous art since they all deal with power supply circuits.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN with the further teachings of YOO such that the power supply circuits are connected to each other to generate a three-phase alternating current voltage in which voltages have different phases from each other by 120 ͦ for the benefit of providing a balanced AC 3-phase system wherein the sum of voltages at any given point in time is zero which leads to smoother power delivery and reduced energy loss.
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over GOTO in view of DIJKHUIZEN and in further view of CZARNECKI (US 2014/0001869 A1, hereinafter CZARNECKI).
Regarding claim 9, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN disclose the power supply system according to claim 1 as discussed above, However, GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN do not disclose wherein two sets of the power supply circuits are connected to generate a single-phase alternating current voltage in which voltages have different phases from each other by 180 ͦ.
CZARNECKI discloses an electrical distribution system comprising two sets of the power supply circuits are connected to generate a single-phase alternating current voltage in which voltages have different phases from each other by 180 ͦ (See Par.3, discloses a split-phase system comprising two hot wires L1 and L2 offset by 180 degrees, the split phase system allows an output of 120 VAC and 240VAC).
GOTO, DIJKHUIZEN and CZARNECKI are analogous art since they all deal with power distribution circuits.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by GOTO and DIJKHUIZEN with the further teachings of CZARNECKI such that two sets of the power supply circuits are connected to generate a single-phase alternating current voltage in which voltages have different phases from each other by 180 ͦ for the benefit of providing an power supply which can provide needed voltage to 120 VAC and 240 VAC loads.
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over GOTO in view of DIJKHUIZEN, YOO and RAVAS (US 3,903,469, hereinafter RAVAS) and in further view of HASLER (US 2014/0084877 A1, hereinafter HASLER).
Regarding claim 8, GOTO, DIJKHUIZEN and YOO disclose the power supply system according to claim 7 as discussed above, However, GOTO, DIJKHUIZEN and YOO as applied to claim 7 do not disclose further comprising:
a transformer connected to a load side, wherein a neutral point of the Y-connected power supply circuits and a neutral point of the transformer are connected via a capacitor.
DIJKHUIZEN further discloses a transformer connected to a load side (See Fig.4, Item#17, discloses a transformer connected to grid, Applicant’s disclosure also discloses the transformer is connected to Grid, see drawings Fig.12).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by GOTO, DIJKHUIZEN and YOO as applied to claim 7 with the further teachings of DIJKHUIZEN by adding a transformer between the power supply circuit and the load for the benefit of providing isolation between the power supply and the load.
However, GOTO, DIJKHUIZEN and YOO do not disclose wherein a neutral point of the Y-connected power supply circuits, and a neutral point of the transformer are connected via a capacitor
RAVAS discloses an inverting arrangement further comprising a transformer connected to a load side (See Fig.5, Item#79, discloses a transformer 79), wherein a neutral point of the Y-connected power supply circuits and a neutral point of the transformer are connected (See Fig.5, discloses the power supply output neutral point of elements 75, 73 and 77 is connected to the neutral point of transformer 79).
GOTO, DIJKHUIZEN, YOO and RAVAS are analogous art since they all deal with power supply circuits. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by GOTO, DIJKHUIZEN and YOO with the further teachings of RAVAS by connecting the neutral point of the transformer to the neutral point of the power supply circuits for the benefit of providing a path for unbalanced current to flow back to the source.
However, GOTO, DIJKHUIZEN, YOO and RAVAS do not disclose a capacitor connected between the neutral point of the transformer and the power supply circuit.
HASLER discloses a capacitor connected between the 3-phase power supply and a neutral point of a compensator (See Fig.2, Item: C).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed GOTO, DIJKHUIZEN, YOO and RAVAS by connecting a capacitor between the neutral point of the transformer and the power supply circuit for the benefit of providing filtering operations and reducing noise.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AHMED H OMAR whose telephone number is (571)270-7165. The examiner can normally be reached 10:00 am -7:00 PM EST.
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/AHMED H OMAR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859