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 . The instant application with Application Number 18/011,534 filed on 12/20/2022 is presented for examination. As per the preliminary amendments of 12/20/2022 claims 1, 3-8 and 10-18 are amended. The originally filed specification is replaced by a Mark-up version and clean version of the specification dated 12/20/2022. Claims 1-20 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statment
The Information Disclosure Statements dated 12/20/2022 and 04/16/2022 are acknowledged and the cited references have been considered in this examination.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Specification
The title of the invention “Power Supply Apparatus” is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) as being anticipated by Ghosh et al. (US 2012/0112547).
With respect to claims 1 and 19, Ghosh discloses a power supply apparatus/method (Fig. 3A, 100: Para. # 0054: supplying power to the load 106 from the battery 110) comprising: a battery assembly (Fig. 3A, 110), a power converter (Fig. 3A, 100) including an input node which is a converter input node on an input side and an output node which is a converter output node (Fig. 3A, 101, input) on an output side (Fig. 3A, output 106), a power input comprising a power input node which is configured for making electrical coupling with an external power supply (Fig. 3A-3C: input node 104 and output node of 106 to external power supply),
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a power output comprising a power output node which is configured for making electrical coupling with a load which is an electrical load (Fig. 3A-3C: power output node making connection with load 106), a first switchable path interconnecting the battery assembly and the input node of the power converter (Fig. 3A, 116, 118 and 120: see reproduced drawing above), a second switchable path interconnecting the battery assembly and the output node of the power converter (Fig. 3A, switches 124, 126 and 128/130), and a third switchable path interconnecting the power input terminal and the input node of the power converter (Fig. 3A, 128 and 108 as in relay); wherein the power converter is configured to provide an input path for passage of a charging current to charge the battery assembly when in a mode of operation (Para. # 0058 and 0077: FIG. 3C illustrates a schematic diagram of the power converter 100, as shown in FIG. 3A, when configured for charger mode operation), and to provide an output path for outputting stored energy of the battery assembly to a load connected to the power output when in another mode of operation (Para. # 0049: The power converter 100 may optionally include a low-pass filter, generally indicated at 134, for filtering the power that is output to the load 106).
With respect to claims 2 and 10, Ghosh discloses the power supply apparatus as described above, wherein the first switchable path and the second switchable path are configured such that when the first switchable path is switched on to form a low-impedance current path to facilitate a flow of battery-output current therethrough, the second switchable path is switched off to form a high-impedance path to impede a flow of battery-charging current therethrough (Para. # 0051: a low voltage side of the DC-DC converter, as generally indicated at 101, includes switching devices 116, 118, 120, and 122, which are arranged in a full-bridge configuration or, optionally, in a push-pull configuration (e.g., as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, described below). In the full-bridge configuration, switching devices 116, 118, 120, and 122 are each switched).
With respect to claims 3 and 7, Ghosh discloses the power supply apparatus as described above, wherein the first switchable path and the second switchable path are configured in opposite switching states such that when the first switchable path is switched off to form a high-impedance path to impede flow of battery-output current therethrough, the second switchable path is switched on to form a low-impedance path to facilitate a flow of battery-charging current therethrough (Para. # 0060: the low-voltage switching devices 116, 118, 120, and 122, and the low-voltage DC bus 150 act as a series resonant DC-DC converter, which transfers energy from the high-voltage DC bus 132 to the low-voltage DC bus 150 to charge the battery 110).
With respect to claims 4 and 6, Ghosh discloses the power supply apparatus as described above, wherein the first switchable path and the third switchable path are configured to operate in opposite switching states such that when the third switchable path is switched on to form a low- impedance current path to facilitate a flow of current therethrough, the first switchable path is switched off to form a high-impedance path to impede flow of current between the battery assembly and the converter input node (Para. # 0060: DC-DC converter, which transfers energy from the high-voltage DC bus 132 to the low-voltage DC bus 150 to charge the battery 110. The first connection node, indicated at 160, couples the high-voltage DC bus 132 to a point on the high-voltage windings 138).
With respect to claims 5 and 11, Ghosh discloses the power supply apparatus as described above, wherein the second switchable path is configured such that when the second switchable path is switched on, a charging path for charging the battery assembly by power output of the power converter is formed, and when the second switchable path is switched on, the apparatus is configured to output power to an external load via the power output node (See Fig. 3A-3C; para. # 0053: FIG. 3A, the power converter 100 functions as an inverter that converts DC power from the battery 110 to AC power for the load 106 when the power converter is operating in an inverter mode, and alternatively functions as a charger that charges the battery using the AC mains 104 when the power converter is operating in a charger mode).
With respect to claims 8, 9 and 12-14, Ghosh discloses the power supply apparatus as described above, wherein each switchable path comprises a power switch which is configured to switch the switchable path in a low-impedance ON-state or in a high-impedance OFF-state, wherein the power switches of the switchable paths collectively form a switch arrangement, and wherein the switch arrangement is configured to switch the apparatus to one of a plurality of connection states, the plurality of connection states including a connection state in which the battery assembly is connected to the input side of the power converter and another connection state in which the battery assembly is connected to the output side of the power converter (See Para. # 0048 and 0060: metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) devices having anti-parallel diodes, or similar devices. The first connection node 160 and the second connection node 162 are each connected to the relay 111. The relay 111 connects, in inverter mode, the first connection node 160 to the load 106 ).
With respect to claims 15, Ghosh discloses the power supply apparatus as described above, wherein wherein the apparatus is a mobile apparatus having a mobile platform and comprising wheels to facilitate mobility of the apparatus and a motor drive unit configured to drive the wheels, and wherein the plurality of connection states comprises: - a switching state which is a seventh switching state in which the switch arrangement is configured such that the battery assembly and the power converter are electrically connected to output stored power to operate the motor drive unit (Para. # 0075: power for any number of power consuming devices, such as personal computers, printers, displays, televisions, telephones, and so forth).
With respect to claims 16, Ghosh discloses the power supply apparatus as described above, wherein the power converter is configured to receive power of a first electrical property to output power of a second electrical property different to the first property, the electrical property being current, voltage and/or frequency (Para. # 0054 and 0074: selectively arranging the electrical couplings between certain electrical components into different configurations to create different circuits, as described in further detail below with reference to FIGS. 3B and 3C. The multiple purpose nature of these certain components minimizes the total number of components required to perform all functions of the power converter 100).
With respect to claims 17 and 20, Ghosh discloses the power supply apparatus as described above, wherein comprising a voltage converter which is connected intermediate the power converter and the power input, wherein output of the second power converter is connected to the input side of the power converter (Para. # 0056).
With respect to claims 18, Ghosh discloses the power supply apparatus as described above, wherein the power converter and the battery assembly are interconnected by a power switch, and wherein the input side of the power converter is electrically connected to one side of the power switch and the output side of the power converter is electrically connected to another side of the power switch and the battery assembly (Para. # 0060: the converter formed by switching devices 124 and 126, the high-voltage DC bus 132, the resonance elements including the resonance inductor 114 and the resonance capacitor 116, the transformer 112, the low-voltage switching devices 116, 118, 120, and 122, and the low-voltage DC bus 150 act as a series resonant DC-DC converter, which transfers energy from the high-voltage DC bus 132 to the low-voltage DC bus 150 to charge the battery 110. The first connection node, indicated at 160, couples the high-voltage DC bus 132 to a point on the high-voltage windings 138 of the transformer 112 that is different with respect to inverter mode operation).
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YALKEW FANTU whose telephone number is (571)272-8928. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:00AM-4:00PM.
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/YALKEW FANTU/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859