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 Status
Applicant’s arguments and claim amendments submitted on November 17th, 2025 have been
entered into the file.
Currently, claims 1 and 6 are amended, claim 7 is cancelled, claims 8-19 are withdrawn, and claim 21 is new, resulting in claims 1-6 and 20-21 pending for examination.
Response to Amendment
The amendments filed on November 17th, 2025 have been received.
The amendment to claim 1 to incorporate the limitations of claim 7 have overcome the 35 U.S.C. 102 rejection of claims 1, 6, and 20 in view of Chen previously set forth in the Non Final Rejection mailed July 16th, 2025.
The amendment to claim 1 to incorporate the limitations of claim 7 have overcome the 35 U.S.C. 102 rejection of claims 1-2, 6, and 20 in view of Fan previously set forth in the Non Final Rejection mailed July 16th, 2025. However, new grounds of rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 are presented in this office action.
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.
Claim 1, 6, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fan (Non-Patent Literature, “Powder-Sintering Derived 3D Porous Current Collector for Stable Lithium Metal Anode”), further in view of You (U.S. Patent Publication No. 20220102731 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Fan discloses a sintering method to obtain a porous copper zinc alloy current collector which is used as a host material to induce dendrite-free lithium deposition (Abstract). Fan teaches the Cu-Zn alloy formed of sintered particles which result in a 3D open porous structure (Page 70, Column 2, Paragraph 1), which is considered equivalent to the instant continuous particulate matrix, comprising sintered copper particles, and open pore structure of the current collector of the battery anode. Further, Fan discloses the Li nucleation and deposition process on the Cu foil (Page 71, Column 2, Paragraph 3; Figure 3h), which is considered equivalent to the instant anode material disposed at least within pores of the current collector.
Fan is silent as to the sintered copper particles having a mean diameter of less than 5 µm.
However, You discloses a negative electrode active material and negative electrode current collector for a lithium secondary battery (Paragraph 0010), wherein the current collector uses current collector particles instead of the conventional plate-type current collector (Paragraph 0008). You teaches that when the current collector is in the form of particles rather than a plate, the electrode active material and current collector particles may be in uniform contact with each other, leading to improved output characteristics of the battery and reduced resistance (Paragraph 0029). You teaches the negative electrode current collector particles are preferably copper particles in order to improve the stability of the battery (Paragraph 0063). You teaches the average particle diameter of the copper particles of the negative electrode current collector is 0.5 µm to 3 µm, in order to increase the surface area of the negative electrode current collector in contact with the negative electrode active material (Paragraph 0064).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the sintered copper particles of Fan to incorporate the teachings of You in which the diameter of the copper particles of the current collector is between 0.5 µm to 3 µm (corresponds to less than 5 µm of the instant claim). Doing so would advantageously result in increased surface area of the negative electrode current collector in contact with the negative electrode active material, as recognized by You.
Regarding claim 6, Fan teaches the anode as described above with respect to claim 1, wherein the anode material comprises lithium (Abstract).
Regarding claim 20, Fan teaches a battery (coin-type cell) comprising the anode as discussed above with respect to claim 1 (3D porous Cu-Zn alloy), a separator (Celgard 2400), an electrolyte (LiTFSI in DME/DOL), and a cathode (counter-electrode).
Claim 21 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fan in view of You as applied to claims 1, 6, 20 above, and further in view of Yang (Chinese Patent Publication No. 104916849 A).
Regarding claim 21, Fan teaches the anode of claim 1. As discussed above, Fan teaches the anode of the battery comprised of sintered copper particles which make up a continuous particle matrix.
Fan is silent as to the anode material completely filling the pores of the current collector.
However, Yang discloses a flexible device comprising a positive electrode sheet, negative electrode, and a separator. Yang teaches the current collector for the positive electrode is porous so that the active substance may be completely embedded into the pore structure of the current collector, thereby increases the adhesion force between the current collector and the active substance, ensuring that the interface is tightly bonded during bending and excellent electrochemical performance is ensured (Paragraph 9). While Yang teaches the active material completely embedded in the porous current collector of the positive electrode, the ordinary artisan would find it obvious that the active material completely embedded in the porous current collector of the negative electrode (as taught by Fan) would result the same beneficial results as articulated by Yang, as adhesion between the current collector and the active material is recognized in the art as desirable in both the positive and negative electrodes of a battery.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the copper particles of the porous anode current collector of Fan to incorporate the teachings of Yang in which the anode material completely fills the pores of the current collector. Doing so would advantageously result in tight bonding between the negative electrode active material and the negative electrode current collector during bending and excellent electrochemical performance, as recognized by Yang.
Claim 1-2, 6, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sauter (German Patent Publication No. 102016210838), further in view of You.
Regarding claim 1, Sauter discloses a battery anode comprising a current collector which is porous and has pores (Abstract), meeting the instant claimed limitation of the open pore structure of the current collector. Sauter also teaches the pores of the current collector are at least filled with lithium of the anodic active material (Abstract) which is pressed into the pores of the current collector during calendaring (Page 4, Paragraph 8), meeting the claimed limitation that anode material is disposed at least within pores of the current collector. Sauter further teaches the current collector of the anode comprises sintered copper chips (Page 4, Paragraph 2). The OED definition of “chip” is a small piece or fragment of a larger whole and the Cambridge definition of “particulate” is a very small piece of a substance. Therefore, the chips which comprise the current collector of the Sauter are considered equivalent to the particulate which comprise the current collector of the instant claim. Further, according to the Merriam Webster definition of “matrix”, the natural material in which something is embedded, the current collector of Sauter may be considered a matrix because the copper matrix comprises pores which the lithium of the anodic active material fills (Abstract), meeting the limitations of the instant claim.
Sauter teaches the application of a film on both sides of the current collector (Page 4, Paragraphs 6 and 9), where the current collector comprises sintered copper chips (Page 4, Paragraph 2), discussed above, thus the limitation of the current collector being continuous is anticipated by Sauter. In the alternative, Sauter teaches that the copper chips are sintered and therefore the sintered particle to particle structure would establish a continuous matrix. This is further supported by Sauter, who teaches the other morphologies of the copper current collector of the anode to be an expanded metal mesh (Page 3, Paragraph 7) or copper tissue or a fabric of copper fibers (Page 4, Paragraphs 1-3). These mesh, tissue, and fabric options for the anodic current collector taught by Sauter are continuous. Therefore, one would also expect because the sintered copper chips forming the anodic current collector to form a continuous structure. In the alternative, it would further be obvious to an ordinary artisan to make continuous the sintered copper chips in accordance with the other continuous copper current collector structures taught by Sauter.
Sauter is silent as to the sintered copper particles having a mean diameter of less than 5 µm.
However, as discussed above, You discloses a negative electrode active material and negative electrode current collector for a lithium secondary battery (Paragraph 0010), wherein the current collector uses current collector particles instead of the conventional plate-type current collector (Paragraph 0008). You teaches that when the current collector is in the form of particles rather than a plate, the electrode active material and current collector particles may be in uniform contact with each other, leading to improved output characteristics of the battery and reduced resistance (Paragraph 0029). You teaches the negative electrode current collector particles are preferably copper particles in order to improve the stability of the battery (Paragraph 0063). You teaches the average particle diameter of the copper particles of the negative electrode current collector is 0.5 µm to 3 µm, in order to increase the surface area of the negative electrode current collector in contact with the negative electrode active material (Paragraph 0064).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the sintered copper particles of Sauter to incorporate the teachings of You in which the diameter of the copper particles of the current collector is between 0.5 µm to 3 µm (corresponds to less than 5 µm of the instant claim). Doing so would advantageously result in increased surface area of the negative electrode current collector in contact with the negative electrode active material, as recognized by You.
Regarding claim 2, Sauter teaches the battery anode as discussed above with respect to claim 1.
Sauter teaches the current collector coated on a first side with a first film (layer) containing lithium (Page 4, Paragraph 6). Further, Sauter teaches the current collector also being coated on a second side, which is opposite the first side, with a second film (layer) containing lithium (Page 4, Paragraph 9). Thus, Sauter teaches the current collector of the anode coated on both sides with anodic active material (Page 4, Paragraph 10), meeting the instant claimed limitations.
Regarding claim 6, Sauter teaches the battery anode as discussed above with respect to claim 1, wherein the anode material comprises lithium (Page 3, Paragraph 4), as discussed above.
Regarding claim 20, Sauter teaches a battery comprising the anode of claim 1, an electrolyte (Page 6, Paragraph 6), a separator, and a cathode (Page 7, Paragraph 7).
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sauter in view of You as applied to claims 1-2, 6, 20 above, and further in view of Morita (U.S. Patent Publication No. 20010018150 A1).
Regarding claim 3, Sauter teaches the battery anode as discussed above with respect to claim 2.
Sauter teaches the anodic active material applied to both sides of the current collector of the anode, with the thickness of the anodic active material preferably between 1 µm and 2 µm. Therefore, if the thickness of both layers of anodic active material applied to the negative current collector is taught by Sauter to be in the range of 2 µm and 4 µm, which lies within the range of the sum of thickness of the first and second layer of the instant claim, meeting the limitations.
Sauter is silent to the thickness of the current collector comprising sintered copper chips.
However, Morita discloses a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery comprising a positive electrode, negative electrode, and nonaqueous electrolyte (Abstract). Morita teaches a current collector having a porous structure, wherein the thickness of the current collector is desirably between 5 µm and 20 µm. Morita teaches when the current collector falls within the range, the strength of the electrode is well balanced with a desirable lightweight characteristic (Paragraph 0135).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the current collector of the negative anode of Sauter to incorporate the teachings of Morita so that its thickness is between 5 µm and 20 µm. Doing so would advantageously result in an electrode of sufficient strength while also being lightweight, as recognized by Morita.
The resulting range of thickness of copper current collector of Sauter modified by Morita lies within the instant range of thickness of copper current collector, meeting the claimed limitation.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sauter in view of You as applied to claims 1-2, 6, 20 above, and further in view of Isshiki (U.S. Patent Publication No. 20140023922 A1) and Kojima (U.S. Patent Publication No. 20210351393 A1).
Regarding claim 4, Sauter teaches the battery anode as discussed above with respect to claim 3, with a first and or second layer of anode material disposed on the current collector.
Sauter is silent as to the thickness of the first layer and/or the second layer has a variation along a length of the anode of less than 2 µm.
However, Kojima discloses a negative electrode for a battery, the negative electrode layer comprising a negative electrode mixture layer containing the negative electrode active material (Paragraph 0144). Kojima teaches the variation in the thickness of the negative electrode mixture layer being ± 10% or less (Paragraph 0144).
Isshiki discloses a posterior pressurization step to integrate the electrode composition layer and the current collector to minimize variations in the thickness of the shape of the formed electrode layer (Paragraph 190). Further, Isshiki teaches that when the thickness of the electrode composition layer is more even (less variation), a higher capacity of an electrochemical element can be obtained.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the anode material layer of Sauter to incorporate the teachings of Kojima motivated by Isshiki in which the negative electrode mixture layer has a thickness variation of ± 10% or less. Doing so would advantageously result in higher capacity of the battery, as recognized by Isshiki.
As discussed above in the rejection of claim 3, Sauter teaches the anodic active material applied to both sides of the current collector of the anode, with the thickness of the anodic active material preferably between 1 µm and 2 µm. When applying the teachings of Kojima in the modification above, when the variation of the thickness is ± 10% or less, the resulting variation of the first and/or second layer is determined to be 0.9 µm -1.1 µm (1 µm ± 0.1* 1 µm) and 1.8 µm – 2.2 µm (2 µm ± 0.1* 2 µm). Thus, the overall range of variation of thickness of the anode material layer along the length of the anode is thus 0.9 µm-2.2 µm.
The range of variation of anode material layer thickness of Sauter in view of Kojima and Isshiki substantially overlaps the claimed ranges of variation of anode material layer thickness in the instant claim. It has been held that obviousness exists where the claimed ranges overlap or lie inside ranges disclosed by the prior art. See MPEP 2144.05 (I). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to have selected from the overlapping portion of the range taught by Sauter in view of Kojima and Isshiki because overlapping ranges have been held to establish prima facie obviousness.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sauter in view of You as applied to claims 1-2, 6, 20 above, and further in view of Uchiyama (W.O. 2021153526 A1).
Regarding claim 5, Sauter teaches the battery anode as discussed above with respect to claim 3.
Sauter is silent regarding the anode having a surface roughness of less than 1 µm.
However, Uchiyama discloses a negative electrode for nonaqueous electrolyte secondary batteries containing a negative electrode current collector and a negative electrode mixture layer supported by the negative electrode collector (Abstract). Uchiyama teaches the negative electrode current collector may be a porous conductive substrate and may further be comprised of copper (Page 17, Paragraph 1). Uchiyama teaches the surface roughness of a metal foil used for the negative electrode current collector to be in the range of 0.5 µm and 5 µm (Page 17, Paragraph 2). Uchiyama further teaches that when the surface roughness is 0.5 µm or more, the good adhesion between the negative electrode mixture layer and the metal foil is maintained during charging and discharging. When the surface roughness is 5 µm or less, Uchiyama teaches the anchor effect resulting from the unevenness, thus adhesion of the negative electrode mixture layer is improved (Page 17, Paragraph 3).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the negative electrode current collector of Sauter to incorporate the teachings of Uchiyama in which the surface roughness of the collector is between 0.5 µm and 5 µm. Doing so would advantageously result in desirable adhesion between the negative electrode mixture layer and the negative current collector, as recognized by Uchiyama.
The resulting range of surface roughness of the current collector of Sauter modified by Uchiyama substantially overlaps the claimed ranges of current collector surface roughness in the instant claim. It has been held that obviousness exists where the claimed ranges overlap or lie inside ranges disclosed by the prior art. See MPEP 2144.05 (I). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to have selected from the overlapping portion of the range taught by Sauter modified by Uchiyama because overlapping ranges have been held to establish prima facie obviousness.
Claim 21 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sauter in view of You as applied to claims 1-2, 6, 20 above, and further in view of Yang.
Regarding claim 21, Sauter teaches the anode of claim 1. As discussed above, Sauter teaches the anode of the battery comprised of sintered copper particles which make up a continuous particle matrix.
Sauter is silent as to the anode material completely filling the pores of the current collector.
However, as discussed above, Yang teaches the current collector for the positive electrode is porous so that the active substance may be completely embedded into the pore structure of the current collector, thereby increases the adhesion force between the current collector and the active substance, ensuring that the interface is tightly bonded during bending and excellent electrochemical performance is ensured (Paragraph 9). While Yang teaches the active material completely embedded in the porous current collector of the positive electrode, the ordinary artisan would find it obvious that the active material completely embedded in the porous current collector of the negative electrode (as taught by Sauter) would result the same beneficial results as articulated by Yang, as adhesion between the current collector and the active material is recognized in the art as desirable in both the positive and negative electrodes of a battery.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the copper particles of the porous anode current collector of Sauter to incorporate the teachings of Yang in which the anode material completely fills the pores of the current collector. Doing so would advantageously result in tight bonding between the negative electrode active material and the negative electrode current collector during bending and excellent electrochemical performance, as recognized by Yang.
Claim 21 is alternately rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sauter in view of You as applied to claims 1-2, 6, 20 above, and further in view of Young (Korean Patent Publication No. 201800356602 A).
Regarding claim 21, Sauter teaches the anode of claim 1.
Sauter is silent as to the anode material completely filling the pores of the current collector.
However, as discussed above, Sauter teaches a porous current collector comprised of sintered copper particles which form a continuous particulate matrix.
Young discloses an electrode composite for a battery including a porous current collector onto which an electrode composite material is supported (Paragraph 0001). Young teaches the pore size of the porous current collector as a way to control the impregnation effect of the active material. Young teaches that when pore size is too small, the porous current collector cannot be impregnated with active material and if the pore size is too large, there are remaining voids among the current collector particles after the active material is impregnated, which act as a resistor to the electrode because the current collector particles lack contact with the active material particles (Paragraph 0048).
Absent unexpected results, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the current collector of Sauter to incorporate the teachings of Young with respect to pore size of the continuous particulate matrix and further to optimize the pore size of the matrix of sintered copper particles, since it has been held where general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art. See MPEP 2144.05. In the present invention, one would have been motivated to optimize the pore size of the porous cooper current collector of the anode in order for the anode material to completely fill the pores of the current collector in order to effectively impregnate the voids of the porous current collector so that no voids are unoccupied. For example, the ordinary artisan would recognize, according to the teachings of Young, that by completely occupying the voids of the porous current collector, the resistance to the electrode in reduced and greater contact between the active material particles and the current collecting particles is obtained. Thus, the void size of the pores of the porous current collector may be tuned in order to completely fill the pores with anode material according to the claimed limitation.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks filed November 17th, 2025, with respect to the rejection of claim 7 under Sautner in view of Kim have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground of rejection is made in view of You, as described above.
The Examiner acknowledges applicant’s request in the Remarks filed November 17th, 2025 of rejoinder of the withdrawn claims. However, as described in this office, the elected claim set remains rejected with the new grounds of rejection in view of Sauter, You, Yang, and Young presented in this office action.
Conclusion
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/O.A.J./Examiner, Art Unit 1789
/MARLA D MCCONNELL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1789