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 .
Claims 1-14 are pending in this application. Claims 1-2, 4-5, 8-9 and 12 are amended.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Species I in the reply filed on 10/28/25 is acknowledged.
Claim 1-14 are allowable. Claims 4, 6-8, and 11-14, previously withdrawn from consideration as a result of a restriction requirement, require all the limitations of an allowable claim. Pursuant to the procedures set forth in MPEP § 821.04(a), the restriction requirement between Species I-V, as set forth in the Office action mailed on 08/28/25, is hereby withdrawn and claims 4, 6-8, and 11-14 hereby rejoined and fully examined for patentability under 37 CFR 1.104. In view of the withdrawal of the restriction requirement, applicant(s) are advised that if any claim presented in a divisional application is anticipated by, or includes all the limitations of, a claim that is allowable in the present application, such claim may be subject to provisional statutory and/or nonstatutory double patenting rejections over the claims of the instant application. Once the restriction requirement is withdrawn, the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 121 are no longer applicable. See In re Ziegler, 443 F.2d 1211, 1215, 170 USPQ 129, 131-32 (CCPA 1971). See also MPEP § 804.01.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) was submitted on 7/27/23. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 07/27/23. The drawings are objected to as failing to comply with 37 CFR 1.84(p)(5) because they do not include the following reference sign(s) mentioned in the description:
Par [0067] of the specification points to "as shown in FIG. 4 the controller 20", however the controller 20 is not present in fig 4
Par [0082] of the specification points to "current sampling unit 43", however the current sampling unit 43 is not present in fig 4
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
Par [0053] the phrase "a first DC filter capacitor unit, a second DC filter capacitor unit, M AC filter capacitor units" appears that it should be replaced with "a first DC filter capacitor unit Cd1, a second DC filter capacitor unit Cd2, M AC filter capacitor units Cf1 and Cf2"
Par [0058] the phrase "as shown in FIG. 2, the bi-directional switch network 10" appears it should be replaced with “as shown in FIG. 2, the bi-directional switch network 11” as it is labelled in fig 2 as 11
Par [0060] the phrase "bidirectional switch network 10" appears it should be replaced with “bidirectional switch network 11” as it is labelled in fig 2 as 11
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 acronyms "DC", "AC", "M" must be defined in their first instance of independent claims
Appropriate correction is required.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-14 are allowed. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Regarding claim 1, Prakash (US 10199957 B1) discloses a bi-directional split-phase inverter circuit (fig 3, bi-directional DC-AC converter 300), comprising a positive DC bus (fig 3, bus rail from positive side of DC source 301, positive side bi-directional DC-DC converter 304), a negative DC bus (fig 3, bus rail from negative side of DC source 301, negative side bi-directional DC-DC converter 306), , M AC filter capacitor units (fig 3, output filter 305 including capacitor Cout 334), M bi-directional switch networks (fig 3, first switch (Q1) 308, second switch (Q2) 310, third switch (Q3) 312, fourth switch (Q4) 314, fifth switch (Q5) 316, and sixth switch (Q6) 318), a neutral wire (fig 3, neutral 335) and M live wires (fig 3, live wires entering load 342) , where M>2; , and one of the AC filter capacitor units is connected between each one of the live wires and the neutral wire (fig 3, 334 is connected between live wires and neutral 335); each bi-directional switch network of the M bi-directional switch networks comprises an inverting coupling transformer (fig 3, TX1 and TX2), a filter inductor (fig 3, Lout 332) and multiple switch bridge arms (fig 3, DC/DC bridge 302 with Q1-Q6); a DC positive terminal and a DC negative terminal of the switch bridge arm are connected correspondingly and respectively with the positive DC bus and the negative DC bus (fig 3, DC power 301 is provided to DC/DC bridge 302 then to two DC-DC converters 304, 306 and each converter 304, 306 processes half of the received power, positive side converter 304 and negative side converter 306), a bridge arm midpoint of each switch bridge arm is connected with a winding of the reinverting coupling transformer (fig 3, midpoints between Q1 and Q4 and Q2 and Q6 connected to transformer TX1; midpoint between Q3 and Q6 is connected to TX2), a midpoint of the is connected with a first terminal of the filter inductor (fig 3, midpoints of secondary side of TX1 and TX2 are coupled to Lout 332), and ; the live wires comprise a first live wire and a second live wire (fig 3, first live wire labelled line_out and second live wire opposite the first and not labelled entering the load), and the bi-directional split-phase inverter circuit further comprises a controller (fig 3, controller 344).
Chen et al. (US 20220038028 A1) discloses a power conversion apparatus with dual-mode control. Chen discloses a first DC filter capacitor unit (fig 1, C1), a second DC filter capacitor unit (fig 1, C2), wherein the first DC filter capacitor unit is connected between the positive DC bus and the neutral wire (fig 1, C1 is between + DC and neutral wire C), the second DC filter capacitor unit is connected between the negative DC bus and the neutral wire (fig 1, C2 is between - DC and neutral wire C), and a second terminal of the filter inductor is connected to one of the live wires (fig 1, terminals of inductors L are connected to live wires A and C).
Potts (US 20130057200 A1) discloses a bidirectional inverter system with similar structure of the instant application with split-phase. Potts discloses a controller 33 (fig 3) and the disclosure par [0036] describes the controller as follows “Switch control and monitoring may be performed with one or more microcontrollers, and monitoring circuits 33 such as microprocessors, PWM controllers, current and voltage sense circuitry, comparators, proportional integral controllers and the like. Connections and feedback loops may exist between the various switching elements, current sensors, voltage sensors, positive and negative rails (also referred to as buses) of stages one and two, and throughout to system. To not unnecessarily complicate the drawings, the various discrete control elements and the various interconnections are not shown.”. The specific components of the controller and connections thereof of claim 1 in the instant application are detailed in such a way that finding prior art of the equivalent detail is challenging.
Wan et al. (CN 118232697 A) discloses a bi-directional DC conversion circuit and controller. Wan controller 421 of figs 8A, 8B, and 9 appears to be the closest prior art to the controller described in the instant application. Coupled to the controller 421 is sampling circuits 424A and 424B and sampling resistor R1, R2. However, Wan does not include third and fourth sampling units or the connections described in the instant application.
However, none of the prior art, taken singly or in combination, teach “a reinverting coupling transformer, the controller comprises: a first voltage sampling unit, which is connected to the positive DC bus and performs voltage sampling on the positive DC bus to generate a first voltage sampling signal; a second voltage sampling unit, which is connected to the negative DC bus and performs voltage sampling on the negative DC bus to generate a second voltage sampling signal; a third voltage sampling unit, which is connected to the first live wire and performs voltage sampling on the first live wire to generate a third voltage sampling signal; a fourth voltage sampling unit, which is connected to the second live wire and performs voltage sampling on the second live wire to generate a fourth voltage sampling signal; a first current sampling unit, which is connected to the first live wire and performs current sampling on the first live wire to generate a first current sampling signal; a second current sampling unit, which is connected to the second live wire and performs current sampling on the second live wire to generate a second current sampling signal; a first comparison unit, which is connected to the first voltage sampling unit and to the first current sampling unit respectively, and is used for comparing the first voltage sampling signal and a first reference voltage signal, and generating a first feedback signal according to the a comparison result and the first current sampling signal; a second comparison unit, which is connected to the second voltage sampling unit and to the second current sampling unit respectively, and is used for comparing the second voltage sampling signal and a second reference voltage signal, and generating a second feedback signal according to the a comparison result and the second current sampling signal; a third comparison unit, which is connected to the third voltage sampling unit and to the second current sampling unit respectively, and is used for comparing the third voltage sampling signal and a third reference voltage signal, and generating a third feedback signal according to the a comparison result and the second current sampling signal; a fourth comparison unit, which is connected to the fourth voltage sampling unit and to the first current sampling unit respectively, and is used for comparing the fourth voltage sampling signal and a fourth reference voltage signal, and generating a fourth feedback signal according to the a comparison result and the first current sampling signal; a first control and wave generation unit, which is connected to the first comparison unit and to the second comparison unit respectively, and is used for generating a first control signal according to the first feedback signal and the second feedback signal; a second control and wave generation unit, which is connected to the third comparison unit and to the fourth comparison unit respectively, and is used for generating a second control signal according to the third feedback signal and the fourth feedback signal; a gating unit, which is connected to the first control and wave generation unit and to the second control and wave generation respectively, and is used for generating a PWM driving signal according to a control instruction, the first control signal and the second control signal; and a driver unit, which is connected to the gating unit and to the switch bridge arms of each bi-directional switch network respectively, and is used for generating a driving voltage of corresponding voltage value to each of the switch bridge arms according to the PWM driving signal, so as to drive the bi-directional switch network for rectification or AC conversion, and correspondingly outputting an AC signal or a DC signal of a preset voltage value.”.
Regarding claims 2-7, they are allowed based on their dependency from allowed claim 1.
Regarding claim 8, it contains the allowable subject matter that was presented in claim 1 and is therefore also allowable.
Regarding claims 9-14, they are allowed based on their dependency from allowed claim 8.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Lauren A Shaw whose telephone number is (571)272-3074. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 7-5 EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thienvu Tran can be reached at (571) 270-1276. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/LAUREN ASHLEY SHAW/Examiner, Art Unit 2838
/THIENVU V TRAN/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2838