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 .
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities
Page 2, Line 16, Change from “three-phase AC” to –three-phase DC—
Page 3, Line 25, Change from “runts” to –runs—
Page 17, Line 2, Change from “second capacitor” to –fourth capacitor—
Page 17, Line 6, Change from “second capacitor” to –fourth capacitor—
Page 17, Line 24, Change from “218a” to –218b—
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-6 and 14 are objected to because of the following informalities: Remove designator “(216a)” from line 8 of claim 1 to be consistent with the remainder of the claims.
Claim 8 is objected to. The period “.” in line 6 should be changed to a semi-colon “;”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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, 3, 7, 9 and 13-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Matsubara JP-2019092296-A (hereinafter Matsubara).
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Regarding Claim 1, Yoshinari teaches a system for controlling capacitors comprised in an at least partly electrical driven vehicle (Matsubara, Fig. 1, Element 20, “electric vehicle”; Abstract),
the system comprises:
a converter comprising a first capacitor (Matsubara, Fig. 1, Element 46, “smoothing capacitor”) connected to a first side of a three-phase bridge (Matsubara, Fig. 1, Element 34, “inverter”);
a third capacitor (Matsubara, Fig. 1, Element 47, “capacitor”) adapted to be controlled, via a first switch (Matsubara, Fig. 1, Element “capacitor switch Trb”), to be either connected in parallel to or disconnected from the first capacitor (Matsubara, See underlined content in excerpts below),
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Excerpt from Matsubara:
wherein the system is adapted such that, when the converter is activated and is initiated to start operating or is currently operating, the first switch (216a) is in a closed position such that the third capacitor is connected, and
wherein the system is further adapted such that, when the converter is inactivated and is not in operation, the first switch is in an open position such that the third capacitor is disconnected (Matsubara, See underlined content in excerpts below).
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Excerpts from Matsubara:
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Regarding Claim 3, The teaching of the Matsubara reference discloses the claimed invention as stated above in claim 1. Furthermore, Matsubara teaches wherein the third capacitor is located at one of the following positions: 1) inside the converter; 2) outside the converter and with connection to poles of the power supply and after an inductive filter; 3) outside the converter and with connection to the poles of the power supply and before the inductive filter (Matsubara, See annotated Fig. 1 above, Where the third capacitor 47 is illustrated “outside the converter 34” and “with connection to poles of the power supply 36” and “after the inductive filter L”, i.e. position 2.).
Regarding Claim 7, Matsubara teaches a method for performed by a control unit for controlling capacitors in a system in an at least partly electrical driven vehicle (Matsubara, Fig. 1, Element 20, “electric vehicle”; Abstract), the system comprises:
a converter comprising a first capacitor (Matsubara, Fig. 1, Element 46, “smoothing capacitor”) connected to a first side of a three-phase bridge (Matsubara, Fig. 1, Element 34, “inverter”);
a third capacitor (Matsubara, Fig. 1, Element 47, “capacitor”) adapted to be controlled, via a first switch (Matsubara, Fig. 1, Element “capacitor switch Trb”), to be either connected in parallel to or disconnected from the first capacitor (Matsubara, See underlined content in excerpt below),
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Excerpt from Matsubara:
the method comprises: detecting that the converter is activated and is initiated to start operating; when it has been detected that the converter is activated and is initiated to start operating, triggering the first switch to enter a closed position such that third capacitor is connected to the first capacitor before the converter starts operating; detecting that the converter is inactivated and is not in operation; and when it has been detected that the converter is inactivated and is not in operation, triggering the first switch to enter an open position such that the third capacitor is disconnected from the first capacitor (Matsubara, See underlined content in excerpts below).
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Excerpt(s) from Matsubara:
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Regarding Claim 9, The teaching of the Matsubara reference discloses the claimed invention as stated above in claim 7. Furthermore, Matsubara teaches wherein the third capacitor is located at one of the following positions: 1) inside the converter; 2) outside the converter and with connection to poles of the power supply and after an inductive filter; 3) outside the converter and with connection to the poles of the power supply and before the inductive filter (Matsubara, See annotated Fig. 1 above, Where the third capacitor 47 is illustrated “outside the converter 34” and “with connection to poles of the power supply 36” and “after the inductive filter L”, i.e. position 2.).
Regarding Claim 13, The teaching of the Matsubara reference discloses the claimed invention as stated above in claim 7. Furthermore, Matsubara teaches a control unit for controlling capacitors in a system in an at least partly electrical driven vehicle, the control unit being configured to perform the steps of the method according to claim 7 (Matsubara, Fig. 1, Element 50, “electronic control unit”).
Regarding Claim 14, The teaching of the Matsubara reference discloses the claimed invention as stated above in claim 1. Furthermore, Matsubara teaches a vehicle comprising a system according to claim 1 (Matsubara, Fig. 1, Element 20, “electric vehicle”).
Regarding Claim 15, The teaching of the Matsubara reference discloses the claimed invention as stated above in claim 7. Furthermore, Matsubara teaches a computer program comprising program code means for performing the steps of claim 7 when the computer program is run on a computer (Matsubara, Fig. 1, Element 50, See underlined content in excerpts below).
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Excerpts from Matsubara:
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Regarding Claim 16, The teaching of the Matsubara reference discloses the claimed invention as stated above in claim 7. Furthermore, Matsubara teaches a computer readable medium carrying a computer program comprising program code for performing the steps of claim 7 when the computer program is run on a computer (Matsubara, See underlined content in excerpt below).
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Excerpt from Matsubara:
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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 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsubara JP-2019092296-A (hereinafter Matsubara) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Jiao CN-112234839-A (hereinafter Jiao).
Regarding Claim 2, The teaching of the Matsubara reference discloses the claimed invention as stated above in claim 1, but does not teach a first pre-charge circuit is connected between the third capacitor and the first switch, and wherein the first pre-charge circuit is adapted to pre-charge the third capacitor.
Jiao, however, teaches a pre-charge circuit to charge a capacitor in a series circuit (Jiao, Fig. 2, Elements KR and R).
Absent of showing criticality of a pre-charge circuit, since the invention is described with the precharge circuit being optional it would have been an obvious matter of design choice whether or not to use a pre-charge circuit. Precharge circuits are well known in the art, and since applicant has not disclosed that this configuration solves any stated problem or is for any particular purpose and it appears that the invention would perform equally well with or without the precharge circuit being substituted for the capacitor switch.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsubara JP-2019092296-A (hereinafter Matsubara) as applied to claim 7 above, and further in view of Jiao CN-112234839-A (hereinafter Jiao).
Regarding Claim 8, The teaching of the Matsubara reference discloses the claimed invention as stated above in claim 7, but does not teach a first pre-charge circuit is connected between the third capacitor and the first switch.
Jiao, however, teaches a pre-charge circuit to charge a capacitor in a series circuit (Jiao, Fig. 2, Elements KR and R) wherein a first pre-charge circuit is connected between the third capacitor and the first switch, and wherein the method comprising: after the first switch has been triggered to enter the closed position, detecting that the third capacitor is charged; when it has been detected that the third capacitor is charged, triggering inactivation of the first pre-charge circuit[[.]]; when it has been detected that the converter is inactivated and is not in operation, triggering activation of the first pre-charge circuit (Jiao, See underlined content in excerpts below).
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Excerpt from Jiao:
Absent of showing criticality of a pre-charge circuit, since the invention is described with the precharge circuit being optional it would have been an obvious matter of design choice whether or not to use a pre-charge circuit. Precharge circuits are well known in the art, and since applicant has not disclosed that this configuration solves any stated problem or is for any particular purpose and it appears that the invention would perform equally well with or without the precharge circuit being substituted for the capacitor switch.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-6 and 10-12 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.
Regarding Claim 4: Though the prior art discloses a system for controlling capacitors comprised in an electric vehicle with a first capacitor connected to a three-phase bridge and a third capacitor connected in series with a switch which allows the third capacitor to be in parallel with the first capacitor when the switch is in the on state in an effort to suppress common mode current, it fails to teach or suggest the aforementioned limitations of claim 4, and further including the combination of:
wherein the converter comprises a second capacitor connected to a second side of the three-phase bridge which is opposite of the first side,
wherein a fourth capacitor is adapted to be controlled, via a second switch, to be either connected in parallel to or disconnected from the second capacitor,
wherein system is adapted such that, when the converter is activated and is initiated to start operating or is currently operating, the second switch is in a closed position such that the fourth capacitor is connected,
wherein system is further adapted such that, when the converter is inactivated and is not in operation, the second switch is in an open position such that the fourth capacitor is disconnected,
wherein the third capacitor and the fourth capacitor are located at opposite sides of the system.
Regarding Claim 10: Though the prior art discloses a method performed by a control unit for controlling capacitors comprised in an electric vehicle with a first capacitor connected to a three-phase bridge and a third capacitor connected in series with a switch which allows the third capacitor to be in parallel with the first capacitor when the switch is in the on state in an effort to suppress common mode current, it fails to teach or suggest the aforementioned limitations of claim 10, and further including the combination of:
wherein the converter comprises a second capacitor connected to a second side of the three-phase bridge which is opposite of the first side,
wherein a fourth capacitor is adapted to be controlled, via a second switch, to be either connected in parallel to or disconnected from the second capacitor,
wherein the method comprises:
when it has been detected that the converter is activated and is initiated to start operating, triggering the second switch to enter a closed position such that the fourth capacitor is connected to the second capacitor before the converter starts operating; and
when it has been detected that the converter is inactivated and is not in operation, triggering the second switch to enter an open position such that the fourth capacitor is disconnected from the second capacitor.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Lee et al. U.S. PGPub 2011/0094075 teaches a method using a capacitor module for suppressing common mode noise.
Nagasaka et al. U.S. PGPub 2013/0293047 teaches using a common-mode coil to reduce noise currents.
Imura U.S. PGPub 2017/0110986 teaches a power conversion system with a switched capacitor in parallel with the smoothing capacitor.
Yuzurihara et al. U.S. PGPub 2019/0341847 teaches a power conversion device that suppresses common mode currents.
Shindo JP-2006-027315 teaches a motor drive circuit with capacitors to suppress common mode currents.
Yoshinari WO-2016158133 teaches an electric tool system with a switched capacitor in parallel with the smoothing capacitor.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JERRY D ROBBINS whose telephone number is (571)272-7585. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00AM - 6:00PM Tuesday-Saturday.
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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.
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/JERRY D ROBBINS/ Examiner, Art Unit 2859