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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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 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.
Claim(s) 1, 9-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) as being anticipated by Bhandarkar et al. (US 2015/0241503 A1 hereinafter Bhandarkar).
As to claim 1, Bhandarkar discloses in Figs. 1-6, a capacitor deterioration detection device for detecting deterioration of a capacitor for filter disposed in a filter connected to an AC side of a converter (see the abstract, and also Fig. 1), the capacitor deterioration detection device comprising: a current measurement unit (74 as shown in Fig. 1) configured to measure current flowing through the capacitor for filter (20 as shown in Fig. 1, also para 0021); a calculation unit configured to calculate a parameter for deterioration determination (para 0014, 0021), using a measured value of the current measured by the current measurement unit (para 0014); and a determination unit (72 as shown in Fig. 1) configured to determine occurrence or non-occurrence of deterioration of the capacitor for filter, based on a comparison result (based on 72) between the parameter for deterioration determination calculated by the calculation unit and a criterion value (para 0014-0022).
As to claim 9, Bhandarkar discloses in Figs. 1-6, an alarm output unit configured to output an alarm when the capacitor for filter is determined to have deteriorated by the determination unit (para 0022).
As to claim 10, Bhandarkar discloses in Figs. 1-6, a converter (30 as shown in Fig. 1) configured to perform power conversion between AC power (2 as shown in Fig. 1) on an AC side and DC power on a DC side; and the capacitor deterioration detection device according to claim 1 configured to detect deterioration of a capacitor for filter disposed in a filter connected to an AC side of the converter (Fig. 1).
As to claim 11, Bhandarkar discloses in Figs. 1-6, wherein, when the capacitor for filter (para 0014-0015 is determined to have deteriorated by the determination unit (70 as shown in Fig. 1), the converter system suspends power conversion by the converter (Fig. 1).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-8, 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.
As to claims 2-8, the prior art alone and/or in combination does disclose using a measured value of the current measured by the current measurement unit during an inspection period until a time point at which switching operation of a switching element in the PWM converter for boosting voltage of a DC-link capacitor connected to a DC side of the PWM converter starts, as recited in claims 2-3; and the all of limitations recited in claims 4-8.
Conclusion
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/TUNG X NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2858 7/26/2025