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 .
Response to Amendment
Acknowledgement is made of the amendment filed on 06/22/2026 in which claims 1, 3, and 16 were amended. No other claims were canceled or added, therefore claims 1-20 are pending for examination below.
Specification
Acknowledgement is made to the amendment to the title filed on 06/22/2026. The amendment is accepted and entered and the previous objection has been removed.
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.
Claim(s) 1-6 and 15-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Srivastava et al. [US 2021/0126471] in view of Xu et al. [US 11,784,600].
With respect to claim 1, Srivastava discloses an apparatus comprising: a battery stack comprising a plurality of battery cells [Fig 9A], each battery cell of the plurality of battery cells comprising: an electrochemical cell [B1-B10], a series switch [M2-M20], and a parallel switch [M1-M19], wherein the plurality of battery cells are connected serially in a series string [par. 0008]; bi-directional converter [par. 0013,0054,0063,0089; the converter allows for power to flow to the battery when charged and back to load/grid during a power outage]; inverter [par. 0054-0055; system acts an “inverter” with 2x+1, x being the number of batteries and associated switches]; and a controller configured to output control signals to the series switch and the parallel switch of each of the plurality of battery cells, the first and the second switch of the bi-directional converter circuitry, and the plurality of switches of the inverter [par. 0059; MCU], however Srivastava fails to explicitly disclose the bi-directional converter circuitry of an inductor/switches/capacitor connected to the battery pack along with inverter circuitry connected to the bi-directional convert circuitry.
Therefore, the difference between the prior art and the claimed invention is simple conversional of power between AC and DC which is routine and well-known in the art. For example, Xu relates to a electric vehicles an teaches a bi-directional converter comprising an inductor, first switch, second switch, and capacitor [Fig. 1 and 4] along with an inverter connected to the bi-directional converter circuitry that comprises a plurality of switches to convert DC to AC [i.e. implicit function of an inverter, see also col. 4 line 35 to col. 5 line 35] and a controller for operating the converter and inverter switches [108] in order to utilize DC power stored in a battery to power AC loads.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to modify Srivastava to include the well-known converter and inverter technology as taught by Xu for the benefit of efficiently managing power flow (including boosting and regenerative) back and forth between the batteries and load in a form that is accepted by each device (i.e. DC and AC) as stated by Xu [col. 5 lines 7-17].
With respect to claim 2, Srivastava further discloses an electric motor, wherein the plurality of AC outputs are configured to produce a plurality of waveforms to operate the electric motor [par. 0055].
With respect to claim 3, Srivastava further discloses rectifier circuitry connected to the bi-directional converter circuitry, wherein the rectifier circuitry is configured to convert an AC input to a DC output, and the bi-directional circuitry is configured to convert the DC output from the rectifier circuitry to a lower voltage DC input to the battery stack for charging one or more battery cells of the battery stack [par. 0063].
With respect to claim 4, Srivastava further discloses the controller is configured to operate the apparatus to charge one or more electrochemical cells in a charge mode by controlling the first switch of the bi-directional converter circuitry and the second switch of the bi-directional converter circuitry [par. 0059].
With respect to claim 5, Srivastava further discloses the controller is configured to operate each battery cell of the plurality of battery cells in a bypass mode by controlling the series switch OFF and the parallel switch ON to control a string current to flow through the parallel switch and bypass the electrochemical cell [par. 0059; i.e. even switch off and odd switch on].
With respect to claim 6, Srivastava further discloses the controller is configured to operate each battery cell of the plurality of battery cells in a discharge mode by controlling the series switch ON and the parallel switch OFF to control a current to flow from the electrochemical cell towards the series string [par. 0059-0060; i.e. even switch on and odd switch off].
With respect to claim 15, Srivastava further discloses wherein the controller is configured to determine one or more battery cells of the plurality of battery cells to bypass, and to bypass the determined one or more battery cells by controlling the series switch and the parallel switch of each of the one or more determined battery cells [par. 0059-0061].
With respect to claim 16, Srivastav further discloses wherein the controller is configured to determine the electrochemical cell of one of the plurality of battery cells is faulty, and based on the determination, control bypass of the faulty electrochemical cell [par. 0101].
With respect to claim 17, Srivastav further discloses wherein the controller is configured to determine charge of the electrochemical cell of one of the plurality of battery cells, and based on the determination, control bypass of the electrochemical cell [par. 0101].
With respect to claim 18, Srivastav further discloses a cell level converter circuitry configured to convert a first DC voltage to a second DC voltage, wherein the series switch and the parallel switch of each of the plurality of battery cells are comprised in the cell level converter circuitry [par. 0063; i.e. converter].
With respect to claim 19, Srivastav further discloses wherein the cell level converter circuitry comprises inductorless half bridge converter circuitry [see Fig. 5].
Claim(s) 7-14 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Srivastava et al. [US 2021/0126471] and Xu et al. [US 11,784,600] as applied above, and further in view of Kristensen [US 10,305,298].
With respect to claims 7 and 11, Srivastava’s series and parallel switches (while including intrinsic diodes) fail to depict the specific switching topology comprising a series blocking diode and a parallel bypassing diode as claimed. However, Kristensen relates to creating reconfigurable battery packs and teaches utilizing a switch topography wherein in each battery cell of the plurality of battery cells, the series switch comprises a blocking diode and wherein in each battery cell of the plurality of battery cells, the parallel switch comprises a bypass diode [see fig. 23].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to modify Srivastava to include the blocking diodes for the benefit of preventing reverse current from flowing and for preventing energy loss.
With respect to claims 8 and 12, Srivastav as applied above further discloses diodes being integral with the switches. Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to use the known component (integral diode switches) in the series and parallel switches since it has been held the forming in one piece component which has formerly been formed in two pieces requires only routine skill. The benefit to utilizing integral diode switches greater efficiency by increasing speed, control, and protection of the circuitry as compare to separately designed circuitry.
With respect to claims 9 and 13, Srivastav as applied above further discloses the controller is configured to operate each battery cell of the plurality of battery cells in a charge mode by controlling the series switch ON or OFF, and controlling the parallel switch OFF to control a current to flow through the blocking diode of the series switch and charge the electrochemical cell and wherein the bypass diode is configured to bypass the battery cell in a discharge bypass mode when the series switch is switched OFF and the parallel switch is switched OFF to control a string current to flow through the bypass diode and bypass the electrochemical cell [i.e. this simply describes the basic current flow paths of current in a series and/or parallel path when the controller switches the associated switch on/off to allow and/or prevent current flow, thereby directing the current to/from/around the particular batteries].
With respect to claims 10 and 14, Srivastav as applied above further discloses wherein the blocking diode of the series switch is configured to block current from the electrochemical cell towards the series string in a discharge bypass mode and wherein the bypass diode of the parallel switch is configured to block current in a charge mode [i.e. simply describes the properties function of how a switch and diode work when arranged in the series/parallel configuration as depicted by Srivastav].
With respect to claim 20, Srivastav discloses PWM signaling however fails to explicitly disclose the claimed switches using first and second duty cycles. However, Kristensen further teaches configuring to convert a first DC voltage to a second DC voltage by controlling a first duty cycle of switching of the series switch between ON and OFF, and a second duty cycle of switching of the parallel switch between ON and OFF [col. 12 and cols 15-16; i.e. utilizing different duty cycles for different output voltages].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to modify Srivastava to include the duty cycle control for the benefit of enabling a larger range of output voltages as explicitly stated by Kristensen.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 have been considered but are moot because a new ground of rejection have been applied in view of Xu and Applicant has not yet had a chance to respond to the new rejection.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NATHANIEL R PELTON whose telephone number is (571)270-1761. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am to 5pm.
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/NATHANIEL R PELTON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859
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