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 18/053,976 filed on 11/09/2022 is presented for examination. Claims 1-20 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statment
The Information Disclosure Statement dated 11/09/2022 is 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 is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed. The following title is suggested: Power Supply with Dual Conversion Circuits and Discharge Path for output Capacitors.
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 11-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen (US 2007/0138971) in view of Abdel-Rahman (US 2020/0177089)(Hereinafter, Rahman).
With respect to claims 1 and 11, Chen discloses a power supply (See reproduced Fig.1, 210 below) comprising: a first conversion circuit converting a first alternating current (AC) power to a first direct current (DC) power (Fig. 1, 203; Para. # 0021, 0014: rectifier 203 converts AC voltage to varying magnitude DC voltage) a second conversion circuit converting a second power to a second DC power (Fig. 1, 206; Para. # 0021: rectifier 203 converts AC sinusoidal voltage to DC sinusoidal voltage, converter 206 converts DC sinusoidal voltage to a DC constant voltage on output); a first output capacitor configured to store the first DC power and a second output capacitor configured to store the second DC power (Para. # 0022 and 0023);
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a first discharge circuit creating a first discharge path to discharge the first output capacitor in response to the first DC power being greater than the second DC power (Fig. 1, 212 a biasing circuit as a discharging; Para. #; 0023 and 0022) and a second discharge circuit creating a second discharge path to discharge the second output capacitor in response to the second DC power being greater than the first DC power (Para. # 0014 and 0023: regulator output; capacitor C6).
Chen, does not expressly disclose a discharge circuit and multiple AC-DC converter.
Rahman, on the other hand, discloses a discharge circuit and multiple AC-DC converter (Para. # 0014/0025: multiple power converters with two bridge circuits and transformers; and Figs. 7/8:resonant power converter, with regulation regions operations a discharge mode; bi-directional power converter with MOSFET high voltages switches). CHEN and Rahman are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor namely AC-DC converter as power supply and control of resonant power converter.
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 multiple AC-DC converters and a discharge circuit/path to supply multiple DC power to supply or power output devices run on regulated DC voltage for the benefit of multiple powering output to DC-run external electronics built in one integrated system.
With respect to claims 2 and 12, the combined references of Chen and Rahman disclose the power supply as described above, further Rahman discloses wherein the first discharge circuit comprises: a discharge switch coupled to the first output capacitor (Para. # 0015-0017: power converter with MOSFET high voltages switches; showing switching the bridge from a full-bridge in discharge mode), a resistance element coupled between the discharge switch and a ground terminal (Para. # 0025); and a comparator circuit turning on the discharge switch in response to the first DC power being greater than the second DC power, wherein in response to the discharge switch being turned on, the discharge switch and the resistance element form the first discharge path (Para. # 0047 and 0075).
With respect to claims 3, 13 and 14, the combined references of Chen and Rahman disclose the power supply as described above, further Chen discloses wherein the first conversion circuit comprises: an AC-DC converter converting the first AC power to a first voltage; a boost circuit processing the first voltage to generate a second voltage; a buck circuit processing the second voltage to generate the first DC power (Para. # 00334: any topology as the following: Buck, Boost, Buck-boost, Noninverting buck-boost, H-Bridge, Watkins-Johnson, Current-fed bridge); and a feedback compensation circuit generating a feedback signal according to the first DC power, wherein the buck circuit adjusts the first DC power according to the feedback signal (Fig. 1, feedback circuit 205: Para. # 0012-0014).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4 and 15 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims, including overcoming the objection sated above. Claims 5-10 and 15-20 are depend on the above objected claims of 4 and 15 above.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: wherein the buck circuit comprises: a first pulse-width modulation (PWM) circuit generating a first switching signal and a second switching signal according to the feedback signal; a first switch receiving the first switching signal and coupled between a first node and a second node; a second switch receiving the second switching signal and coupled between the second node and a ground terminal; a resonant circuit coupled between the second node and the ground terminal to generate a resonant voltage; and a transformer generating the first DC power according to the resonant voltage.
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, DREW A DUNN can be reached at 571-272-2312. 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