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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tokuyama et al. (US 20130062724 A1), and further in view of Namuduri et al. (US 20220285959 A1).
Tokuyama teaches a battery (i.e., energy storage apparatus) (136) connected to a power converter (200) comprising a condenser (500) and a power module (300) [0011, 0060], a driver circuit board (22) and a control circuit board (20) connected to a semiconductor devices ((IGBT(328, 330) and diodes (156, 166)) (i.e., heating elements) [0015-0016, 0069-0079], wherein the semiconductor devices are disposed on the side of the driver circuit board (22) (Fig. 22),
and the power module (300) [0060] comprises a cooling jacket and coolant flowing through passage (19) for cooling side surfaces of the semiconductor devices (i.e., heating elements) [0073, 0078] (Fig.6) wherein one side of the semiconductor devices are attached to one side of the first heat emission surface (307A) (i.e., first cooling plate) and the second heat emission surface (307B) is attached on the opposite surface [0081-0082] (Figs. 6 and 15), wherein the body of the semiconductor device is in contact with the heat emission surfaces and the conduction plates (315) (i.e., connectors) protrude outside the module case (304).
Tokuyama does not teach a battery pack, a pump or a heat radiator configured to dissipate heat from the cooling liquid. However, Namuduri teaches an energy storage unit (164) (i.e., a battery pack) connected to a DC-to-DC converter (162) (i.e., power converter) [0053] and configured to be cooled by a cold plate heat sinks (172, 174) using a coolant flow provided by an electric coolant pump (176) which discharges elevated temperature coolant (i.e., coolant that has absorbed heat from the battery pack) into a radiator and fan unit (178) to reduce the temperature of the coolant (i.e., dissipate heat from the coolant) and circulates the coolant back to the cold plates [0054] (Figs. 1 and 8).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filling the instant invention to modify Tokuyama’s energy storage device by including a battery pack, a radiator to dissipate heat absorbed from the cold plates by the circulating coolant, and a pump to pump the coolant through the radiator and the cold plates.
Claims 2 and 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tokuyama et al. (US 20130062724 A1) and Namuduri et al. (US 20220285959 A1) as applied to claim 1, and further in view of Aemisegger et al. (US 20110041696 A1).
Claims 2 and 6: Tokuyama teaches the semiconductor devices (i.e., heating elements) have a body in contact with the cooling device on two sides as described above. Tokuyama does not teach a header or connectors electrically connected to the circuit board.
However, Aemisegger teaches a method of cooling heat-generating element (60) attached to a circuit board (4) wherein heat-generating component (60) (i.e., heating element) comprises a body and a header, and connecting pins (61) to connect the heating element to a printed circuit board (4) as shown in Fig. 9 [0123],
wherein the body and the header of the heating element are disposed in a rectangular indented metal plate (1) serving as a heat sink for the heating element by removing heat generated by the heating element by means of water circulating in the metal plate,
wherein the discontinuous surface of the heating element faces upwards and the flat (i.e., continuous) surface is in contact with the bottom surface (101) of the plate and the side surfaces of the heating element are in contact with the side walls (102) of the metal plate (1) to provide optimal contact between and optimal heat dissipation between the metal plate (1) and the heating element (60) ( (Figs. 8 and 9) [0122, 0124].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filling the instant invention to have made Tokuyama’s heating element in the same shape as Aemisegger’s heating element because Aemisegger teaches such is operable heating element.
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Claim 7: As described above, the combination of Tokuyama teaches the heating elements are in contact with two cooling plates disposed on both sides, and Aemisegger teaches the header and the body are both in contact with the heat sink metal plate (1).
Claims 3, 8 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tokuyama et al. (US 20130062724 A1), Namuduri et al. (US 20220285959 A1) and Aemisegger et al. (US 20110041696 A1) as applied to claims 2 and 6, and further in view of Mizuko et al. (US 20220369505 A1).
Claims 3: As described above, Tokuyama teaches two cooling plates disposed on both sides of the heating elements. Tokuyama does not teach the two cooling plates having separate flow paths for the cooling liquid. However, Mizuko teaches an electronic apparatus cooling device (100) comprising
a water-cooling cold plate unit (1) disposed in contact with a heat generating element (50) (i.e., heating element) and configured to cool the heat-generating elements directly by means of a liquid refrigerant that circulates in the inner flow path,
and an air-cooling fin (2), cooled by the liquid refrigerant supplied to the fin tube (4), is arranged adjacent to the water-cooling plate unit [0031-0033], wherein the fin (2) is configured to cool heat-generating element located downstream of the airflow [0036]. Mizuko teaches, with this arrangement it is possible to maintain air-cooling performance at a constant level and raise the cooling efficiency of an entire electronic apparatus [0020] (Fig.1).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filling the instant invention to eliminate Tokuyama’s cooling jacket and substitute each of Tokuyama’s cooling plates with Mizuko’s cold plate and fin to improve the cooling efficiency of the cooling device.
Claims 8: As described above in claim 3, the combination of Tokuyama and Mizuko teaches two cooling plates with separate flow paths disposed on both sides of the heating elements, wherein Mizuko’s cold plate (1) attached to the first side of the heating element is the first plate and another one of Mizuko’s cold plate is attached on the second side of the heating element is the second plate, and Mizuko’s fins (2) that are in contact with the first and second cooling plates are configured to coupling the second plate to the heating and thus serve as fixing plates 1 and 2, respectively.
Claim 15: Tokuyama teaches the cooling module case is made of aluminum but does not teach the material of the cooling plates [0081]. However, Aemisegger teaches the metal plate (1) (i.e., cooling plate) can be made of an aluminum material [0124]. Such materials are malleable and thus capable of altering shape when a given pressure is applied.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filling the instant invention to have made Tokuyama’s cooling plates with a metal such as aluminum such that the cooling plates are configured to change shape when pressure is applied.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tokuyama et al. (US 20130062724 A1), Namuduri et al. (US 20220285959 A1), Aemisegger et al. (US 20110041696 A1) and Mizuko et al. (US 20220369505 A1), as applied to claim 3, and further in view of Imre et al. (Energies 2021, 14, 4879).
Claim 4: As described above, Tokuyama in combination with Mizuko teach cooling plates with straight rectangular flow paths. They do not teach cooling plates with a shape in which a cross-sectional area is enlarged and reduced repeatedly in a direction of flow of the cooling liquid. Imre teaches a battery thermal management system comprising a liquid cooling system comprising a cooling plate wherein one of the mini-channel cold plate designs for the lateral cooling of prismatic batteries, includes a cold plate with rectangular slot channels wherein the flow path is enlarged and reduced repeatedly (Fig 4c) [Page 7 para 2]. Imre further teaches this cooling channel design offers better cooling capacity than the conventional design, and an improved temperature uniformity [Page 7 para 2].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filling the instant invention to have made Tokuyama’s cooling plates with rectangular slot shaped channels to improve cooling capacity and temperature uniformity near the heating elements.
Claims 5 and 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tokuyama et al. (US 20130062724 A1), Namuduri et al. (US 20220285959 A1), Aemisegger et al. (US 20110041696 A1) and Mizuko et al. (US 20220369505 A1), as applied to claim 2 and 6, and further in view of Janak et al. (US 20170347498 Al).
Claim 5: Tokuyama teaches two separate cooling plates. Tokuyama does not teach by a bending structure connecting the cooling plates. However, Janak teaches a liquid cooling device (110”) comprising a lower cooling plate (325) and an upper cooling plate (330) configured to cool heat generating components (85’’, 90’’) wherein the upper cooling plate (330) is in fluid communication with the lower cooling plate (325) by way of one or more fluid passages including passage (335) (i.e., bending structure) (Fig. 7) [0038].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filling the instant invention to have made Tokuyama’s cooling plates with a connecting member to connect the channels because Janak teaches such is an operable cooling configuration.
Claim 9: As described above, Tokuyama in combination with Mizuko teaches the cooling plates and the fixing plates are structurally similar and disposed in the same direction with respect to the heating elements. However, they do not teach the first plate and the second plate are disposed in different directions. However, Janak teaches lower cooling plate (325) comprises of a body (337) and a lid (338) (i.e., first fixing plate) and the upper cooling plate (330) comprises a body (340) and a lid (341) (i.e., second fixing plate) [0038] (Fig. 7), wherein the lids(i.e., fixing plates) are disposed in the same direction and the bodies of the cooling plates are disposed in the opposite direction with respect to heating element (85”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filling the instant invention to have modified Tokuyama’s cooling plates such that the cooling plates are shaped differently are disposed in opposite directions because Janak teaches such is an operable configuration.
Claim 10: Tokuyama and Mizuko teach the cooling plates are structurally similar and have the same length. They do not teach two cooling plates having different lengths. However, Janak teaches a cooling device wherein the length of the first plate (330) is greater than the length of the second plate (325) (Fig 7, 8 and 9).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filling the instant invention to have modified Tokuyama’s cooling module by using two cooling plates of different lengths because Janak such is an operable configuration of cooling plates.
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Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tokuyama et al. (US 20130062724 A1), Namuduri et al. (US 20220285959 A1), Aemisegger et al. (US 20110041696 A1), and Mizuko et al. (US 20220369505 A1, as applied to claim 8, and further in view of Cheadle et al. (US 20190366876 A1).
Claim 11: As described above, the combination of Tokuyama and Mizuko teaches two cooling plates with separate flow paths disposed on both sides of the heating elements. However, they do not teach a second flow path disposed below the first flow path.
Cheadle teaches Cheadle teaches a thermal management system within an energy storage system (i.e., energy storage apparatus) comprising a heat exchangers (i.e., cooling plates) and heat transfer fluid flowing through the plates [0125, 0131], wherein the cooling plate (18) comprises a first end (72) and a second end (74) which are longitudinally spaced apart, and is vertically divided into two flow channels by a dividing rib (70(3)), located between the pluralities of first (70(1)) (i.e., first flow path) and second ribs (70(2 )) (i.e., second flow path), wherein the inlet and outlet ports (40, 42) are located near the first end (72) [0109-0110] (Figs. 10 and 11).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filling the instant invention to have made Tokuyama’s cooling plates with two flow paths because Cheadle teaches such is an effective cooling plate.
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tokuyama et al. (US 20130062724 A1), Namuduri et al. (US 20220285959 A1) and Aemisegger et al. (US 20110041696 A1) as applied to claims 2 and 6, and further in view of Mizuko et al. (US 20220369505 A1) and Herrmann et al. (US 20110132580 A1).
Claim 12: as described above the combination of Tokuyama, Mizuko teach the fixing plates are in contact with the heating elements. However, they do not teach a header with a fixing hole corresponding to a hole on a fixing plate.
Hermann teaches a device for cooling and a battery cell wherein the cooling plate (27) is in contact with the cell (i.e., heating element) (18) and is provided with a molded plastic part (29) (i.e., fixing plate) which wraps around the cooling plate to be in direct contact with the head of the electrical element (i.e., heating element) (18a), and is clipped via holes the lead of the cell (i.e., the header of the heating element) and attached to cooling plate form a rigid stack(Fig. 31) [0087-0089]. Hermann teaches this configuration helps to hold the lead (i.e., the header) in place in a defined position and confers rigidity to the entire unit.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filling the instant invention to have modified Tokuyama’s cooling module such that the first air cooling fin (2) (i.e. first fixing plate) has a hole corresponding to a position to the fixing hole on the header of the heating element so that the heating element is held in place and the cooling structure is rigid.
Claims 13-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tokuyama et al. (US 20130062724 A1), Namuduri et al. (US 20220285959 A1), Aemisegger et al. (US 20110041696 A1), Mizuko et al. (US 20220369505 A1, Herrmann et al. (US 20110132580 A1), as applied to claim 12, and further in view of Gao (US 20210092878 A1) and Sakai et al. (US 4882959 A).
Claims 13-14: Tokuyama in combination with Mizuko and Herrmann teach a first fixing plate with a hole corresponding to the fixing hole of the header of a heating element, but they do not teach a second hole of the second fixing plate corresponding with the fixing hole of the heating element. However, Gao teaches the assembly and fastening of the cooling plates to the heating elements in a cooling device for a processor mounted on a printed circuit board [0019] and other electronic components, wherein two cooling plates with cooling liquid flowing within (101, 102) are positioned on the top and bottom of the processor and configured to extract heat generated by the electronics [0023] wherein mounting poles are (108A, 108B) extend through corresponding mounting holes (i.e., fixing holes) through the cooling plates (101, 102) cooling plates corresponding to each other, and the cooling plates are also attached to the mother board by means of the mounting poles requiring mounting holes on the mother board and the cooling plates to align.
Tokuyama, Mizuko and Herrmann do not teach the relative diameters of the holes of the fixing plates and the heating element. However, Sakai teaches coupling of two arm members of a hand tool wherein the first and second arm members (1, 4) are fastened to each other by means of the first and second tapered holes (8, 9), wherein the screw (12) is inserted into the tapered holes from the side with the smallest diameter.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filling the instant invention to have modified Tokuyama’s cooling device assembly such that the fixing plates have screw holes aligned with the fixing hole of the heating element, and the diameter of the fixing holes increases in the direction of insertion of the fastening screw because Gao and Sakai teach such is an operable cooling assembly.
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tokuyama et al. (US 20130062724 A1), Namaduri et al. (US 20220285959 A1), Aemisegger et al. (US 2011/0041696 Al), Mizuko et al. (US 20220369505 A1), and Herrmann et al. (US 20110132580 A1), as applied to claim 12, and further in view of Wu et al. (Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering, 2022, 44, 336).
As described above, the combination of Tokuyama, Aemisegger and Herrmann teaches the cooling plates are disposed on both sides of the heating elements with aligned fixing holes, and the plates are made of aluminum which is malleable and capable of altering shape when pressure is applied.
Wu teaches a method of clinch-riveting using a solid rivet and an extensible die to join aluminum alloy sheets, wherein a solid rivet is compressed by the punch and causes plastic deformation of sheets such that the upper sheet material inlays into the lower sheet material and form an interlock (page 3 para 3, abstract). Wu teaches clinch-riveting with pre-existing holes at the clinching site can alleviate unwanted deformations and fractures that can be caused by self-piercing riveting (page 2 para 2). Wu further teaches the deformation degree of the points on upper side is not obvious is a tapered hole exists on the upper side of rivet (page 7 para 2).
Therefore, the first fixing plate having the first hole, as taught by Tokuyama, Aemisegger and Sakai, is configured to have the portion of the first fixing plate move into the fixing hole based on pressing.
Claims 17-18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tokuyama et al. (US 20130062724 A1) and Namuduri et al. (US 20220285959 A1), as applied to claim 1, and further in view of Mizuko et al. (US 20220369505 A1).
Claim 17-18: As described above, the combination of Tokuyama and Mizuko teaches a cooling device comprising of two liquid cooling plates in contact with a plurality of heating elements wherein the cooling plates are in contact with air-cooling fins (i.e., heat sinks). Mizuko further teaches the air-cooling fin (2) (i.e., heat sink) are cooled by the liquid refrigerant supplied to the fin tube (4) and configured to cool heat-generating element located downstream of the airflow [0036].
Claim 20: As described above, the combination of Tokuyama in combination with Mizuko teach the limitations of claims 1 and 17.
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tokuyama et al. (US 20130062724 A1), Namuduri et al. (US 20220285959 A1) and Mizuko et al. (US 20220369505 A1), as applied to claim 17, and further in view of Janak et al. (US 20170347498 Al).
Claim 19: As describes above, Tokuyama in combination with Mizuko teach the limitations of claims 17 and 18. Mizuko further teaches a contact plate in contact with the cooling plate, and heat radiating fins protruding from the contact plate as shown below. Janak teaches the fixing plates that are configured to couple the cooling plates and the heating elements as described above.
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Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Ral et al. (US 20110292615 A1) teaches a power converter comprising a battery charger printed circuit board system [0013, 0008] (Fig. 1) that comprises a circuit board (12, 14) including a plurality of heat generating electrical components (24n, 26n) (i.e., heating elements) attached thereto [0005, 0019],
wherein the heat generated by the heating elements is dissipated by a cold plate (15) arranged to directly contact the printed circuit board at the bottom of the stack via conduction as well as convection [0013] (Figs, 1,2 and 3).
Hart et al. (US 2020/0006197 A1) teaches an attachment hole (955) (i.e., fixing hole) in the header of the element (Fig. 16c) may be used to firmly clamp the device (110) to a heatsink busbar [0121].
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LINAH RUSERE whose telephone number is (571)272-9954. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8:00-5:00 EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Cleveland can be reached at 571-272-1418. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/L.N.R./Examiner, Art Unit 1712
/MICHAEL B CLEVELAND/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1712
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