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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 1 December 2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The Applicant argues that the proposed combination would not teach or suggest at least that when a living object appears on a detection coil pad that includes a plurality of detection coils, a “parasitic capacitance between the detection coils occurs,” as recited in independent claims 1, 11 and 18.
The Examiner established a prima facie case of obviousness by identifying where each limitation is suggested by the cited references, and articulated a reason to combine.
However, the Applicant’s conclusory statement does not provide explanation or evidence sufficient to rebut the prima facie case of obviousness.
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, 9-15 and 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KR 101703995 (‘995) in view of U.S. 20190319493 A1 to Jiang et al.
‘995 discloses, with regards to claim:
1. A combined metal object detection (MOD) and live object detection (LOD) system (“in fig. 5, the FOD sensing device… also serves as an LOD sensing device”) for a wireless power transfer (WPT) system in an electric vehicle (EV) charging application (Abstract), the combined MOD and LOD system comprising:
a transmitting pad (100);
a detection coil pad (1) coupled to the transmitting pad, wherein the detection coil pad comprises a plurality of detection coils (‘995 fig. 5, element 1-4); and
a receiving pad (EV) positioned adjacent to the transmitting pad, wherein the transmitting pad, the detection coil pad, and the receiving pad are configured such that, when a living object or a metal object appears between the transmitting pad and the receiving pad, an inductance or capacitance value change of the detection coil pad occurs (the presence of a foreign object induces a voltage, “a voltage value induced in one of the pair of coils may be used to detect LOD”).
‘995 discloses:
11. A method for combined metal object detection (MOD) and live object detection (LOD) for a wireless power transfer (WPT) system in an electric vehicle (EV) charging application (Abstract), the method comprising:
detecting, an inductance or capacitance value change of a detection coil pad of the MOD and LOD system, wherein the detection coil pad comprises a plurality of detection coils (‘995 fig. 5, element 1-4), wherein the MOD and LOD system comprises:
a transmitting pad (100);
the detection coil pad (1) coupled to the transmitting pad; and
a receiving pad (EV) positioned adjacent to the transmitting pad, wherein the transmitting pad, the detection coil pad, and the receiving pad are configured such that, when a living object or a metal object appears between the transmitting pad and the receiving pad, the inductance or capacitance value change of the detection coil pad occurs (the object induces a voltage in the coil).
18. A combined metal object detection (MOD) and live object detection (LOD) system for a wireless power transfer (WPT) system in an electric vehicle (EV) charging application, the combined MOD and LOD system comprising:
a transmitting pad (100);
a detection coil pad (1) coupled to the transmitting pad, wherein the detection coil pad comprises a plurality of detection coils (‘995 fig. 5, element 1-4);
a receiving pad (EV) positioned adjacent to the transmitting pad;
the detection coil pad, and the receiving pad are configured such that, when a living object or a metal object appears between the transmitting pad and the receiving pad, an inductance or capacitance value change of the detection coil pad occurs; and a computing device, comprising a processor and a memory (100), configured to store programming instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to detect an inductance or capacitance value change of the detection coil pad (a voltage is induced in the coil).
‘995 does not expressly disclose:
wherein, when the living object appears between the transmitting pad and the receiving pad, the detection coil pad is configured such that a parasitic capacitance between the plurality of detection coils occurs.
However, Jiang et al. discloses detecting a capacitance between the coils for living object detection ( [0054]-[0055 ).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have modified ‘995, as suggested by Jiang et al., such that when a living object appears between the transmitting pad and the receiving pad, the detection coil pad is configured such that a parasitic capacitance between the plurality of detection coils occurs for the purpose of detecting living objects with higher detection sensitivity.
With regards to claims 2, 11 and 18, ‘995 does not expressly disclose using a resonant circuit of a MOD and LOD system, and the resonant circuit.
However, Jiang et al. discloses detecting a MOD and LOD using a resonant circuit (fig. 2).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the resonant circuit into ‘995 for the purpose of providing a device with improved sensitivity to foreign objects [0013].
With regards to claim 3, the combination discloses the combined MOD and LOD system of claim 2, wherein the resonant circuit is configured:
to generate an output; and
such that the inductance or capacitance change causes the output of the resonant circuit to change [0014], “capacitive detection (e.g., human body) and high-resonant-frequency foreign object detection”, [0029] “determine the coil impedance at one or more frequencies…compare these values (i.e., coil impedance, noise spectrum, coil capacitance) with the reference values…determine if…foreign objects are present in the field…determine if human tissues touch the coil”, the impedance change detected is equivalent to inductance, while coil capacitance is a capacitance change).
‘995 does not disclose, however, Jiang discloses:
4. The combined MOD and LOD system of claim 3, further comprising a signal processing circuit configured to remove a noise signal from the output of the resonant circuit (“differential amplifier 130 amplifies the differential voltage from the primary coil 102 or the secondary coil 118 and outputs the second measured voltage 151 to the multiplexer 134… 130 “provides built-in low-pass/high-pass, band-pass, and all pass functions”).
14. The method of claim 13, further comprising removing, using a signal processing circuit, a noise signal from the output of the resonant circuit (130 “provides built-in low-pass/high-pass, band-pass, and all pass functions”).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate filtering into ‘995, as suggested by Jiang et al., for the purpose of increasing the accuracy and sensitivity of detection.
With regards to claim 12, the combination discloses the method of claim 11, wherein: the resonant circuit is coupled to the detection coil pad, and the resonant circuit is configured such that the inductance or capacitance change causes a resonant condition of the resonant circuit to change (Jiang et al., fig. 2).
13. The method of claim 12, further comprising generating, using the resonant circuit, an output, wherein the inductance or capacitance change causes the output of the resonant circuit to change (fig. 2).
The combination discloses, with regards to claim 5, the combined MOD and LOD system of claim 3, wherein:
the output comprises an output voltage signal; and
the output voltage signal is configured such that it indicates whether a live object or a metal object is present between the transmitting pad and the receiving pad (Jiang et al., [0055]-[0056] ).
9. The combined MOD and LOD system of claim 1, wherein, when a metal object appears between the transmitting pad and the receiving pad, the detection coil pad is configured such that a change in a self-inductance of a detection coil of the detection coil pad occurs (“a voltage value induced in one of the pair of coils may be used to detect LOD”).
10. The combined MOD and LOD system of claim 1, wherein the detection coil pad comprises a four-layer coil structure (coil faces 1, 2, 3, 4 in fig. 5).
With regards to claim 15, the combination discloses the method of claim 13, wherein:
the output comprises an output voltage signal, and
the output voltage signal is configured such that it indicates whether a live object or a metal object is present between the transmitting pad and the receiving pad, and further comprising determining, using a processor (101), whether a live object or a metal object is present between the transmitting pad and the receiving pad based on the output voltage signal ( [0055]-[0056] ).
With regards to claim 17, the combination discloses:
17. The method of claim 11, wherein, when a metal object appears between the transmitting pad and the receiving pad, the detection coil pad is configured such that a change in a self- inductance of a detection coil of the detection coil pad occurs (‘995, the presence of a foreign object induces a voltage, “a voltage value induced in one of the pair of coils may be used to detect LOD”, see also Jiang et al., [0056] ).
The combination discloses, with regards to claim 19, the combined MOD and LOD system of claim 18, wherein the programming instructions are further configured to cause the processor to generate, using the resonant circuit, an output ( [0055]-[0056 ), wherein the inductance or capacitance change causes the output of the resonant circuit to change (fig. 2).
The combination discloses, with regards to claim 20, the combined MOD and LOD system of claim 19, wherein:
the output comprises an output voltage signal,
the output voltage signal is configured such that it indicates whether a live object or a metal object is present between the transmitting pad and the receiving pad, and
the programming instructions are further configured to cause the processor to determine whether a live object or a metal object is present between the transmitting pad and the receiving pad based on the output voltage signal ( [0055]-[0056] ).
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ‘995 and Jiang and further in view of U.S. 20220239160 (Sieber et al.).
‘995 does not disclose:
6. The combined MOD and LOD system of claim 1, further comprising a plastic pad coupled to the detection coil pad.
However, Sieber et al. discloses coils protected by plastic insulators (coil former 420, [0081] “plastic material”) and/or a plastic enclosure [0013].
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention to modify ‘995 to include a plastic pad coupled to the detection coil pad, in the form of a coil former, and/or a plastic enclosure [0013], as suggested by Sieber et al., for the purpose of protecting the electric structure and coils from damage and short circuits.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Julian D Huffman whose telephone number is (571)272-2147. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday 9am-6pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Group Director Andrea Wellington can be reached at (571)272-4483. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JULIAN D HUFFMAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2859
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