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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 09/13/2022 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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, 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(s) 1-5, 8-15, and 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. [US 2020/0118181] in view of Acena et al. [US 2013/0320922].
With respect to claims 1 and 12, Lee discloses a vehicle battery charging apparatus [Fig. 1] comprising: a power supply chip [210] enabled according to voltage levels of a control pilot signal [201, par. 0052] to supply an internal power supply voltage [i.e. internal bus/output of charging controller]; a charging controller configured to receive the internal power supply voltage and control charging of a vehicle battery based on the control pilot signal [230]. However. Lee fails to explicitly disclose a chip enable circuit configured to receive the internal power supply voltage, receive the control pilot signal, and adjust a voltage level of the chip enable signal based on a voltage level of the control pilot signal to enable the power supply chip.
Acena relates to a wake-up controller for an onboard battery charger and teaches a power supply chip [36] having a chip enable circuit [38] configured to receive an internal power supply voltage and receive the control pilot signal [i.e. inputs to 38], and adjust a voltage level of the chip enable signal based on a voltage level of the control pilot signal to enable the power supply chip [output signal of 38, “wake-up to OBC”].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant invention to modify Lee to incorporate a chip enable circuit as taught by Lee for the benefit of conserving power consumption and only activating in response to the connections/control pilots.
With respect to claims 2 and 13, Lee further discloses wherein the control pilot signal is changeable to any one of a plurality of preset states according to a battery charging sequence between electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) and a vehicle [Fig. 4; which includes a connected but not charging state].
With respect to claims 3 and 14, Lee as modified by Acena above further disclose the power supply chip is enabled when a voltage level of the control pilot signal is a preset voltage level or higher; and the preset voltage level is set between a maximum voltage level and a minimum voltage level of the control pilot signal corresponding to a state in which the vehicle is connected to the EVSE and is not ready to receive power among the plurality of preset states [Figs. 4 of both Lee and Acena detail how the pilot signal varying between a min/max is used to control the wake-up and charging controls since they represent the connection state of the evse/plug between the vehicle and charging station].
With respect to claims 4-5 and 15, Acena as applied above further discloses wherein the chip enable circuit is configured to adjust a voltage level of the chip enable signal to the preset voltage level or higher and wherein the power supply chip is enabled when the voltage level of the chip enable signal is the preset voltage level or higher. [Figs 4a-4c detail the wake-up and obc activation signal being increased in order to send the activation signal].
With respect to claims 8 and 18, Acena as applied above further discloses wherein a duty ratio of the control pilot signal is variable according to current limiting capacity information of electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) [par. 0016-0017].
With respect to claims 9 and 19, Acena as applied above further discloses wherein the charging controller is configured to control charging of the vehicle battery by detecting a voltage level, a frequency, and a duty ratio of the control pilot signal [par. 0016-0017, 0029; Fig. 5].
With respect to claims 10, Acena as applied above further discloses wherein an enabled section of the power supply chip is variable according to a duty ratio of the control pilot signal [par. 0016-0017].
With respect to claims 11 and 20, Acena as applied above further wherein the charging controller is configured to receive the internal power supply voltage to activate a power latch signal and continuously enable the power supply chip based on the activated power latch signal [i.e. switch S2 is equated to activation of a power latch, note the wake-up OBC is continuously high during the activation].
Claim(s) 6-7 and 16-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. [US 2020/0118181] and Acena et al. [US 2013/0320922] as applied above, and further in view of Wand [US 2018/0354387].
With respect to claims 6-7 and 16-17, Acena as applied above discloses being configured to adjust a voltage level of the chip enable signal to a preset voltage level or higher corresponding to a state in which the vehicle is connected to the EVSE and is not ready to receive power among the plurality of preset states [Fig. 4] but fails to disclose using an RC circuit.
However, RC circuits are well-known in the art to incorporate delays/activations by utilizing the properties of resistance/capacitors time constants. For instance, Wand relates to battery charging with a wakeup timer function that teaches enabling based on an RC circuit including a resistor having a resistance and a capacitor having a capacitance and the RC circuit by charging/discharging the capacitor according to a time constant determined by the resistance and the capacitance at a voltage level of the control pilot signal [par. 0018] and further include amplifiers and diodes [Fig. 3].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant invention to modify Lee to incorporate a RC circuit as taught by Wand for the benefit of creating short delays to provide the alternating output signals.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NATHANIEL R PELTON whose telephone number is (571)270-1761. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am to 5pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Julian Huffman can be reached at 571-272-2147. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/NATHANIEL R PELTON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859