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 18/193,751 filed on 03/31/2023 is presented for examination. Claims 1-16 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statment
The Information Disclosure Statements dated 03/31/2023 and 10/29/2025 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 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 § 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 1-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cho et al. (US 2017/0093179) (Hereinafter, Cho) in view of Cai et al. (US 2021/0328275).
With respect to claims 1, 8 and 10, Cho discloses an electrochemical apparatus/method (Fig. 1; Para. # 0005: Batteries generate electrical power using an electrochemical reaction material for a positive electrode and a negative electrode),comprising: a negative electrode active substance (Para. # 08,043/0080: a battery including graphite as a negative active material);
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wherein the negative electrode active substance comprises a first active substance and a second active substance (Para. # 0014 and 0015 and 0122:One of these materials includes a silicon-containing active material; a battery assembly including at least one rechargeable lithium battery including: a negative electrode: a silicon-containing negative active material selected from silicon, a silicon-carbon composite, and a combination), a discharge capacity per unit mass of the first active substance is smaller than that of the second active substance (Para. # 008 a battery including graphite as a negative active material has a high discharge voltage of 3.6 V to provide high energy density of a lithium battery; a life cycle of the electrochemical apparatus comprises N cycle segments arranged sequentially (reproduced figure 3 below indicates number of charge cycles vs charge capacity); Para. # 0066 and 139),
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and the electrochemical apparatus is charged and discharged cyclically based on certain discharge cut-off voltage (Para. # 086 and 102: controlling the discharge cut-off voltage of the battery assembly within a predetermined range, cracks in a silicon-containing negative active material, and the cycle life characteristics may be improved.)
Cho, does not expressly disclose a discharge cut-off voltage between a first discharge cut-off voltage and an (N-1) discharge cut-off voltage is smaller than an (i+1)th discharge cut-off voltage.
Cai, on the other hand, discloses a discharge cut-off voltage between a first discharge cut-off voltage and an (N-1) discharge cut-off voltage is smaller than an (i+1)th discharge cut-off voltage (See Para. # 007, 061-065 and 068: the charging method includes n cycle stages in sequence, the n cycle stages are respectively defined as i.sup.th cycle stages, i=1, 2, . . . , n, n is a positive integer greater than 1, a previous cycle stage of the i.sup.th cycle stage is defined as a (i-1).sup.th cycle stage, the charging stage of the i.sup.th cycle stage has an i.sup.th cut-off voltage, the charging stage of the (i-1).sup.th cycle stage has a (i-1).sup.th cut-off voltage, and the i.sup.th cut-off voltage is less than the (i-1).sup.th cut-off voltage).
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CHO and Cai are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor namely method of controlling charging and discharging battery and charging method for electrochemical device.
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 first discharge cut-off voltage and an (N-1) discharge cut-off voltage is smaller than the other to the method of controlling charging and discharging of Cho in view of Cai for the benefit of extended battery life when uses multiple, progressively lower discharge cut-off voltages gains further advantages in safety preventing irreversible damage, prolong battery life and maximizes total available energy.
With respect to claims 2 and 9, the combined references of Cho and Cai disclose the electrochemical apparatus/method as described above, wherein Cai further discloses the first active substance comprises graphite, and the second active substance comprises silicon (Para. # 0088: The negative electrode 132 includes at least one of silicon, tin, a silicon carbon material, artificial graphite, natural graphite, etc.), and further a computer readable storage medium with a processor (See Para. # 0033-0035; and reproduced figure 1 below).
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With respect to claims 3, 4 and 13, the combined references of Cho and Cai disclose the electrochemical apparatus/method as described above, wherein Cai discloses the life cycle of the electrochemical apparatus comprises a 1st cycle segment and a 2nd cycle segment arranged sequentially, and one of the following conditions is satisfied: a mass percentage of the silicon in the negative electrode active substance is (0%, 20%], and a value range for a number of cycles corresponding to a boundary between the 1t cycle segment and the 2ad cycle segment is [300, 500]; a mass percentage of silicon in the negative electrode active substance is (20%, 60%], and a value range for the number of cycles corresponding to a boundary between the 1st cycle segment and the 2ad cycle segment is [100, 300); or a mass percentage of silicon in the negative electrode active substance is (60%, 100%), and a value range for the number of cycles corresponding to a boundary between the 1st cycle segment and the 2ad cycle segment is [1, 100) (See Para. # 0068: charging cycle corresponds to the charging stage with a first cut-off voltage. That is, in the first cycle stage, the electrochemical device 13 is charged to the first cut-off voltage by the constant-current charging stages in the 100 charging and discharging cycles. When i=2 and m.sub.2=200, it means that the second cycle stage has 200 charging and discharging cycles, each charging and discharging cycle includes a constant-current charging stage, and the constant-current charging stage of each charging and discharging cycle corresponds to the charging stage with a second cut-off voltage. That is, in the second cycle stage, the electrochemical device 13 is charged to the second cut-off voltage by the constant-current charging stages in the 200 charging and discharging cycles. When i=3 and m.sub.3=100, it means that the third cycle stage has 100 charging and discharging cycles).
With respect to claims 5, 12 and 14, the combined references of Cho and Cai disclose the electrochemical apparatus/method as described above, wherein Cai discloses in the ith cycle segment between a 1t cycle segment and a (N-1)th cycle segment, when the electrochemical apparatus is charged and discharged cyclically based on a number of cycles corresponding to a boundary between the ith cycle segment and a (i+1)th cycle segment, a difference in capacity retention rates, between cyclic charging and discharging based on the ith discharge cut-off voltage and cyclic charging and discharging based on the (i+1)th discharge cut-off voltage, of the electrochemical apparatus is less than 20% (Para. # 0062-0064 and 0077-0079: FIG. 5, in the (i-1).sup.th (i-1≥1) cycle stage, the charging stage of the (i-1).sup.th cycle stage has the (i-1).sup.th cut-off voltage, which may include the following specific steps; Step S51: the (i-1).sup.th cycle stage has the constant-current charging stage, the current of the constant-current charging stage of the (i-1).sup.th cycle stage is defined as the (i-1).sup.th current, and the constant-current charging stage of the (i-1).sup.th cycle stage has the (i-1).sup.th cut-off voltage).
With respect to claims 6, 7 and 15-16 , the combined references of Cho and Cai disclose the electrochemical apparatus/method as described above, wherein Cai discloses the second active substance comprises silicon, and the electrochemical apparatus comprises a 1St discharge cut- off voltage and a 2"d discharge cut-off voltage; wherein a value range of the 1st discharge cut-off voltage is [2.2V, 3V), and a value range of the2ad discharge cut-off voltage is [3V, 3.3V) (Para. # 0070: the i.sup.th cut-off voltage may be set and adjusted according to actual usage requirements. For example, the i.sup.th cut-off voltage may be 4.2V, 4.18V, 4.15V, or may also be other values).
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/YALKEW FANTU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859