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 . As per the remarks of 06/10/2026, claims 23-30 have been added.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 06/10/2026 has been entered.
Claims 1-4 and 4-19 were previously allowed. Claims 3 and 20-22 were previously cancelled. Claims 1-2, 4-19 and 23-30 are pending.
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 23, 25-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Greening (US 2016000627) in view of Sohn et al. (US 2021/0226556).
With respect to claims 23 and 30 Greening discloses a method of operating / a buck-fed current multiplier battery charging circuit/method (Fig. 2, 200) comprising: a buck converter having an input configured to receive an input voltage and an output configured to deliver a regulated current (Fig. 2, 224: Para. # 32: power converter 224 may be a buck converter to reduce a direct current input voltage 218 to a direct current battery rail voltage 222); a current multiplier having an input configured to receive the regulated current from the buck converter and an output configured to deliver a multiple of the regulated current to a battery (Para. # 32: voltage and current delivered to a terminal of battery 208 may be adjusted by altering battery rail voltage 222. In an embodiment, power converter 224 is a DC-to-DC converter, such as a linear voltage regulator), controller circuitry coupled to the buck converter that operates
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switches of the buck converter to produce the regulated current and coupled to the current multiplier that operates switches of the current multiplier to deliver the multiple of the regulated current to the battery (Para. # 9/10, 33: the battery controller and charger controller operate at different bandwidths, when determining the target and adjusting the power converter accordingly; a first feedback control loop process that is based on the measured battery side current, battery side voltage). Further Greening discloses the power converter switch mode converter, and the charger controller adjust a duty cycle of the power converter to control how much power is transferred from the input to battery rail voltage (Para. # 0032).
GREENING, however, does not expressly disclose the current multiplier comprising one or more flying capacitor stages including a resonant circuit.
Sohn discloses current multiplier comprising one or more flying capacitor stages including a resonant circuit (Fig. 1, 120; the power supply 120 may include a capacitor 122, an inverter 123, an impedance matching circuit 130, and a controller 125; flying capacitors specialized capacitors, in electronics with inverters or multi-level inverters as described in par. 58 cap 122 with inverter 123 and impedance matching).
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GREENING and Sohn are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor namely Battery charger and power supply to a load.
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 frequency control means to the battery charger of GREENING in view of the teachings of Sohn for the benefit of increased charging efficiency, faster charging times, and better battery lifespan by precisely controlling voltage and current.
With respect to claim 25, the combined references of Greening and Sohn disclose the buck-fed current multiplier battery charging circuit as described above, Greening further discloses comprising a clamp diode coupled between the output of the buck converter and the input of the buck converter (Para. # 0032).
With respect to claim 26, the combined references of Greening and Sohn disclose the buck-fed current multiplier battery charging circuit as described above, Greening further discloses comprising a clamp capacitor coupled to the output of the buck converter (Para. # 62, and 32: power converter 224 may be a buck, boost, or buck-boost converter. For example, power converter 224 may be a buck converter to reduce a direct current input voltage 218 to a direct current battery rail voltage 222).
With respect to claims 27 and 28, the combined references of Greening and Sohn disclose the buck-fed current multiplier battery charging circuit as described above, Sohn further discloses wherein the controller circuitry operates the buck converter at a switching frequency that is synchronized with and an even integer multiple of a switching frequency of the current multiplier (Para. # 4, 30, 78 and 80: waveforms of an output voltage and an output current depending on lapse of time when a frequency of the output voltage and a resonant frequency of a load match each other; also FIGS. 1, 2, and 6, a phase of the output voltage VO may lag behind a phase of the output current IO when the frequency fsw of the output voltage VO is lower than the resonant frequency f0 of a load 140).
With respect to claim 29, the combined references of Greening and Sohn disclose the buck-fed current multiplier battery charging circuit as described above, Greening further discloses wherein the current multiplier comprises at least three flying capacitor stages, providing for selection of integer multiples (Para. # 59: multiple stages of phases that include capacitive elements in each stage).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 2, 4-19 are allowed as described in early action. Claim 24 is 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 or/and rejection sated above.
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
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