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 18/030415 filed on 04/05/2023 is presented for examination. As per the remarks of 04/05/2023 claims 1-11 are amended, and replacement sheet of drawing including changes to Figure 2 has been acknowledge.
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.
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 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 present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 of this title, 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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) 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.
Claims 1-3 and 7-8, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Loftus et al. (2017/0057372) in view of Li (US 2011/0074431).
With respect to claims 1-3, Loftus et al. (Hereinafter, Loftus) discloses a battery protection circuit (Para. # 0022: battery pack voltage measurements, individual battery cell voltage measurements, battery over charge protection, battery over-discharge protection) configured in a battery pack in which N battery cells are connected in series with each other (Fig. 3, battery pack 24, battery cells 82 connected in series; Para. # 0025: battery cells connected in series), and a negative pole of a first cell at the lowest end among the battery cells is connected to a ground (Fig. 3, the last cell of 82 doesn’t expressly disclose ground, but as commonly known to the art, the last cell is connected to ground), wherein N > 2, the battery protection circuit comprising: a plurality of primary sensing lines connected between positive/negative electrodes of each battery cell and a monitoring integrated circuit (IC) (Fig. 3, sensing electrode 84, 86, etc. and IC 96);
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the monitoring IC configured to perform primary monitoring by measuring a voltage of each of the battery cells (Para.#0027: a cell monitor integrated circuit (IC) 96; cell monitor IC 96 measures individual cell voltages, reports cell voltages to control logic within BECM 46); through the plurality of primary sensing lines (Fig. 3, 44: para. # 0026: n associated cell monitor IC or sensor module 44 (as illustrated in FIG. 2);a plurality of secondary sensing lines connected to each of the plurality of primary sensing lines (Para. # 0026:a sensor module 44, having sensing leads 84, 86);
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a switch configured to connect one secondary sensing line among the plurality of secondary sensing lines and a micro control unit (MCU) (Fig. 3, sensing lines 84, 86 and MCU 96); and the MCU configured to measure electrode voltage of each battery cell with one of the secondary sensing line connected through a control of the switch (Para. # 0027: MCU 96 measures individual cell voltages, reports cell voltages to control logic within BECM 46, and periodically performs cell balancing and/or thermal conditioning), (as in Fig. 2, master control switch 47 measures battery cell 1-N using the sensor modules N1-Nc: paragraph and perform secondary monitoring by sequentially calculating voltages of the first cell to the N-th cell based on the measured ground and positive electrode voltages of the battery cells (Fig. 4, monitor sequential (102) and calculate voltage differences (114) of each cell, etc.; Para. # 0028).
Loftus, does not expressly disclose battery cell at the lowest end among the battery cells is connected to a ground and MCU configured to measure the ground and a positive electrode voltage of each battery cell.
Li, however, discloses that the battery cell at the lowest end among the battery cells is connected to a ground (Fig. 3, GND; Para. # 0030: negative terminal of the cell 215, which is at the lowest end, connected to ground)
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and MCU configured to measure the ground and a positive electrode voltage of each battery cell (Para. # 0019, 0020/0030: the detection and measurement block 240 receives the shifted voltages and measures the cell voltages of the cells 211-21, and 215 is the measured against the GND as the last electrode in a series).
LOFTUS and Li are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor namely battery pack voltage measurement and Circuit for measuring cell voltages in battery packs.
At the time of the invention, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person of ordinary skill in the art to have incorporate the cell detection circuit of the battery pack system of Li in view of Loftus to include measuring/detecting voltage of cells in a battery pack between the electrode and the ground (since Loftus is silent disclosing the ground and could have been without the ground as rarely use floating or measuring voltage between cells /voltage differential) for the benefit of safety and accuracy as measuring battery voltage with respect to ground reference offers key advantages in stability, safety and accuracy compared to measuring without the ground (floating/differential) as ground provides a stable.
With respect to claims 7-8, the scopes of claims 7 and 8 are substantially similar, to claims 1-3; therefore, rejected for same reason described above in rejections to claims 1-3. The prior art used to address the battery protection circuit of claim 1 as a device or apparatus, is in its normal and usual operation, and it would necessarily perform the method claimed in claims 7-8 to be anticipated by the prior art. When the prior art device is the same as a device described in the specification for carrying out the claimed method, it can be assumed the device will inherently perform the claimed process.
Claims 4-6, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Loftus in view of Li further in view of Brochhaus (US 2017/0210229).
With respect to claim 4, the combined references of Loftus and Li disclose the battery protection circuit as described above, wherein Loftus further teaches that the MCU (Fig. 3, 96) comprises: a switch control unit configured to sequentially locate the switch alternately from the secondary first sensing line and a secondary second sensing line to the secondary (N+1)-th sensing line (Fig. 3, switches 88 and sensing lines 84, 86, etc.; par.# 0026: battery packs often include dozens or hundreds of cells that may be arranged in one or more groups, bricks, or blocks of cells with each group, brick, or block having an associated cell monitor IC or sensor module 44 (as illustrated in FIG. 2). Likewise, although battery cells 42 are illustrated as individual cells 82 connected in series and having voltage sense leads 84, 86 and a charge switching connection 88); and reference Li further teaches a cell voltage measurement unit configured to measure ground (GND) and positive electrode voltages of a corresponding battery cell with a secondary sensing line connected through the switch under the control of the switch control unit (Para. # 0027: a cell monitor integrated circuit (IC) 96. Cell monitor IC 96 measures individual cell voltages, reports cell voltages to control logic within BECM 46);
Further Li discloses a cell voltage calculation unit configured to sequentially calculate voltage values from the first cell to the N-th cell using the ground (GND) and positive electrode (+) voltages of the battery cells measured by the cell voltage measurement unit; and a secondary monitoring unit configured to perform secondary monitoring of voltage states of the battery cells based on respective voltage values of the first to N-th cells calculated by the cell voltage calculation unit (Para. # 0019, 0020/0030: the detection and measurement block 240 receives the shifted voltages and measures the cell voltages of the cells 211-21, and 215 is the measured against the GND as the last electrode in a series)
Combined references of Loftus and Li, do not expressly disclose a secondary monitoring unit configured to perform secondary monitoring of voltage states of the battery cells based on respective voltage values of the cells.
Brochhaus, on the other hand, discloses a secondary monitoring unit configured to perform secondary monitoring of voltage states of the battery cells based on respective voltage values of the first to N-th cells (Para. # 0041/0042 and 0044-0045: battery management system comprising the main control device 2, a first measuring chain 34 having measuring chips 40 that monitors cells parameters, such as voltages and current a first type and a second measuring chain 36 having measuring chips 42 of a second type; the measuring chips 40, 42 of the first and second type also be referred to as CSC(Para. # 0042).
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LOFTUS, Li and Brochhaus are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor namely battery pack voltage measurement of Battery system and circuits and method for measuring cell voltages in battery packs.
At the time of the invention, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person of ordinary skill in the art to have added a secondary monitoring unit configured to perform secondary monitoring of voltage states of the battery cells so that in the case of a failure of one of the measuring chains or monitoring unit, the remaining measuring chain or monitoring unit can be assigned the management functions to prevent the battery system from overheating or overcurrent damage to the battery or battery cells (Par. # 0027) to the battery pack measurement device of Loftus/Li in view of Brochhaus.
With respect to claim 5, the combined references of Loftus, Li and Brochhaus disclose the battery protection circuit as described above, further Li discloses wherein the cell voltage measurement unit measures the ground (GND) and the positive electrode voltage of the (N-1)-th cell through the secondary first sensing line and the secondary N-th sensing line other; and measures the ground (GND) and positive electrode voltages of the N-th cell through the secondary first sensing line and the secondary (N+1)-th sensing line (Para. # 0019, 0020/0030: the detection and measurement block 240 receives the shifted voltages and measures the cell voltages of the cells 211-21, and 215 is the measured against the GND as the last electrode in a series); and Loftus describes through the plurality of primary sensing lines (Fig.3, 44: para. # 0026: and associated cell monitor IC or sensor module 44 (as illustrated in FIG. 2).
With respect to claim 6, the combined references of Loftus, Li and Brochhaus disclose the battery protection circuit as described above, further Li discloses wherein the cell voltage calculation unit calculates the voltage value of the first cell from the positive electrode voltage of the first cell and the ground (GND) measured by the cell voltage measurement unit (as above: Para. # 0019, 0020/0030: the detection and measurement block 240 receives the shifted voltages and measures the cell voltages of the cells 211-21, and 215 is the measured against the GND as the last electrode in a series) further Loftus teaches calculating the voltage summation values of the first to N-th cells with the positive electrode voltage of the N-th cell and the ground measured by the cell voltage measurement unit, and calculates the voltage value of the N-th cell by subtracting the voltage summation values of the first to (N-1)-th cells from the calculated voltage summation values of the first to N-th cells (Fig. 4, monitor sequential (102) and calculate voltage differences (114) of each cell, etc; Para. # 0028; (Fig. 4, monitor sequential (102) and calculate voltage differences (114) of each cell; Para. # 0027-0028: cell monitor integrated circuit (IC) 96, cell monitor IC 96 measures individual cell voltages, reports cell voltages to control logic within BECM 46).
Claims 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Loftus (2017/0057372) in view of Lee (KR20190094706).
With respect to claim 9, Loftus discloses a battery protection method for protecting N (N 2) battery cells connected in series, the method comprising: a first voltage measurement step of measuring a primary voltage of each of the battery cells through a primary sensing line connected to each battery cell in a monitoring IC (Para.#0027: a cell monitor integrated circuit (IC) 96; cell monitor IC 96 measures individual cell voltages, reports cell voltages to control logic within BECM 46); a second voltage measurement step of controlling a switching circuit connecting between an MCU and any one of secondary sensing lines connected to the primary sensing lines, and measuring a secondary voltage of each of the battery cells through the connected secondary sensing line (Fig. 3, 44: para. # 0026: and associated cell monitor IC or sensor module 44 (as illustrated in FIG. 2);
Loftus, however, does not disclose a comparison step of comparing a primary voltage of the monitoring IC or (main control unit) with a secondary voltage of multiple battery cells, and comparing whether a deviation is greater than or equal to a predetermined deviation reference range
Lee, on the other hand, discloses a comparison step of comparing a primary voltage of the monitoring IC or (main control unit) with a secondary voltage of the multiple or plurality battery cells (Para. # 0020 and 0026) and comparing whether a deviation is greater than or equal to a predetermined deviation reference range (Para. # 0038: compares the voltage of the highest magnitude among the measured voltages with the second blocking voltage, and if the voltage of the highest magnitude is greater than the second blocking voltage); and when the comparison result of the comparison step is greater than or equal to a predetermined deviation reference range (Para. # 0028: main control unit (150) detects a voltage corresponding to the charge stop voltage and outputs a control signal to turn off the charge switch (131), if the battery cell voltage rises and becomes higher than the first cut-off voltage, the primary protection circuit (140) can output a signal to cut off the connection of the fuse (120).
But, both references, however, does not expressly teach an error determination step of providing a notification alert by determining that an error has occurred in either one of the controlling units (such as monitoring IC or MCU). However, it would have been obvious in the art that in a battery protection system to have Battery Management System (BMS) or controller MCU usually indicates or notify when a faulty sensor, loose wiring, cell imbalance, or overvoltage/overcurrent issue occurred, and to protect the battery, the BMS typically flags this error, triggering a warning light or error code.
Claims 10-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Loftus (2017/0057372) in view of Lee (KR20190094706) as described above further in view of Li (US 2011/0074431).
With respect to claims 10 and 11, the combined references of Loftus and Lee disclose the battery protection method as described above, Loftus further teaches that a voltage measurement step of sequentially positioning, by the MCU (Fig. 3, 96) comprises: a switch control unit configured to sequentially locate the switch alternately from the secondary first sensing line and a secondary second sensing line to the secondary (N+1)-the sensing line (Fig. 3, switches 88 and sensing lines 84, 86, etc; par.# 0026: battery packs often include dozens or hundreds of cells that may be arranged in one or more groups, bricks, or blocks of cells with each group, brick, or block having an associated cell monitor IC or sensor module 44 (as illustrated in FIG. 2). Likewise, although battery cells 42 are illustrated as individual cells 82 connected in series and having voltage sense leads 84, 86 and a charge switching connection 88).
But, the combined references of Loftus and Lee do not disclose calculate voltage values from the first cell to the N-th cell using the ground (GND) and positive electrode (+) voltages of the battery cells measured by the cell voltage measurement unit; and a secondary monitoring unit configured to perform secondary monitoring of voltage states of the battery cells based on respective voltage values.
Li, however, discloses an N-th cell voltage calculation unit configured to sequentially calculate voltage values from the first cell to the N-th cell using the ground (GND) and positive electrode (+) voltages of the battery cells measured by the cell voltage measurement unit; and a secondary monitoring unit configured to perform secondary monitoring of voltage states of the battery cells based on respective voltage values of the first to N-th cells calculated by the cell voltage calculation unit (Para. # 0019, 0020/0030: the detection and measurement block 240 receives the shifted voltages and measures the cell voltages of the cells 211-21, and 215 is the measured against the GND as the last electrode in a series).
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LOFTUS, Lee and Li are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor namely battery pack voltage measurement and Circuit for measuring cell voltages in battery packs.
At the time of the invention, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person of ordinary skill in the art to have added cell measuring voltage of cells in a battery pack between the electrode and the ground for the benefit of safety and accuracy described earlier, and voltage calculation unit configured to sequentially calculate voltage values to battery pack voltage measurement of Loftus/Lee further in view of Li for the benefit of protecting battery, battery pack and related power units from over voltage or undervoltage that would negatively impact the life cycle of the battery and prolong its use life. Its overall voltage calculating help the balance or discrepancy of the total voltages for battery safety and accuracy during measurements.
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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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, TAELOR KIM can be reached at 571-270-7166. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/YALKEW FANTU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859