Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/318,516

BATTERY MANAGEMENT CIRCUITS WITH REDUNDANT POWER SUPPLY

Non-Final OA §102
Filed
May 16, 2023
Examiner
PHAN, HUY Q
Art Unit
2858
Tech Center
2800 — Semiconductors & Electrical Systems
Assignee
Infineon Technologies AG
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
55%
Grant Probability
Moderate
1-2
OA Rounds
3y 11m
To Grant
88%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 55% of resolved cases
55%
Career Allow Rate
92 granted / 166 resolved
-12.6% vs TC avg
Strong +33% interview lift
Without
With
+32.9%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 11m
Avg Prosecution
6 currently pending
Career history
172
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
7.9%
-32.1% vs TC avg
§103
47.7%
+7.7% vs TC avg
§102
24.9%
-15.1% vs TC avg
§112
12.2%
-27.8% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 166 resolved cases

Office Action

§102
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. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 5/16/2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. 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. (a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Claim(s) 1-3 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Pub. No.: US 20160380443 (hereinafter as Jeon ). Regarding claim 1, Jeon discloses a battery cell management circuit (fig. 1, 300 and [0029] -[ 0031]) configured to manage a plurality of battery cells (fig. 1, 20) , the battery cell management circuit comprising: a first connection to a first power supply (fig. 1, 20) , wherein the first power supply comprises the plurality of battery cells ([0029]) ; and a second connection to a second power supply (fig. 1, 100) , wherein the second power supply comprises a DC/DC power converter ([0031]) . Regarding claim 2 , Jeon discloses the battery cell management circuit of claim 1, wherein the first power supply and the second power supply comprise different power supply domains, wherein the first power supply comprises a high voltage power supply domain (fig. 1, 20 ) and the second power supply comprises a low voltage power supply domain (fig. 1, 100 ) , and wherein the low voltage power supply operates at a voltage level that is lower than that of the high voltage power supply ([0031]) . Regarding claim 3 , Jeon discloses the battery cell management circuit of claim 2, wherein the low voltage power supply domain (fig. 1, 100 ) and the high voltage power supply domain (fig. 1, 100 ) are galvanically isolated ([0032]) . Regarding claim 20 , Jeon discloses a method of operating a battery management circuit (fig. 1, 300) of a battery management system (fig. 1) associated with an electric device, the method comprising: supplying power to the battery management circuit from battery cells (fig. 1, 20) being monitored by the battery management circuit in a first instance of time ([0029]) ; and suppling power to the battery management circuit from a DC/DC power converter (fig. 1, 100) in a second instance of time ([0031]) . Allowable Subject Matter Claims 8-19 are allowed. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: The thorough search found 3 closest references: US- 20130135904 discloses “ a hybrid power source including a plurality of DC power sources such as a solar cell, a secondary battery as a backup power source of the solar cell and the like, it is possible to provide a DC/DC converter which shares a transformer and a rectifier circuit and includes a plurality of oscillation circuits with low loss. ” ( [0080] ) US- 20090225571 suggests “ methods for mitigating the DC content of an AC output from an inverter. The inverter may be powered by unbalanced DC inputs while still mitigating the DC content of the AC output wavefrom . Embodiments of the present invention may be used in any DC-AC inverter that inverts a DC voltage to an AC voltage. The inverters of the present invention could be used in motor drives, engine start, APU start and the like. The source of the DC voltage could be Transformer Rectifier Unit (TRU) AutoTransformer Rectifier Unit (ARTU), DC/DC converters, fuel cell, batteries, rectifiers or any other DC voltage source. Embodiments of the present invention provides methods to mitigate the DC content in the output DC voltage by reshaping the PWM reference signals (carrier signals) according to the DC content in such a way that the DC content is canceled. These reshaped PWM reference signals may be, for example, unsymmetrical reference waveforms. ” ( see [00 19 ].) US- 20230048191 teaches “ when the control unit 500 detects that the battery voltage of the second battery cell Cell 2 is too high (i.e., the battery voltage is greater than the upper threshold voltage), the control unit 500 turns on the third switching switch unit S b 1 by the third switching switch control signal S b 1 c , turns on the fourth switching switch unit S b 2 by the fourth switching switch control signals S b 2 c , turns on the second switch unit S.sub.2 by the second switch control signal S 2 c , and turns on the third switch unit S.sub.3 by the third switch control signal S 3 c so that the electrical energy of the second battery cell is released to the battery link L.sub.CELL through the second switch unit S.sub.2, the third switch unit S.sub.3, the third switching switch unit S b 1 , the fourth switching switch unit S b 2 , and the isolated DC/DC converter 400 . In addition to reducing the battery voltage of the second battery cell Cell 2 to prevent over-charging, the electrical energy of the second battery cell Cell 2 can also be used as the electrical energy for charging the battery link L.sub.CELL without wasting. ” ( [0040] ) However, the combination of each of the cited references above does not disclose nor fairly suggest each and every claimed limitation of the independent claims 8 and 14 (specifically limitations of “… N rectifier circuits connected to the N battery cell management circuits; and a transformer that connects the DC/DC power converter to the N rectifier circuits, wherein the N battery cell management circuits are configured to receive power from the first power supply in a first instance of time and to receive power from the second power supply via the transformer and the N rectifier circuits in a second instance of time ”) , therefore claims 8-19 are allowed. Claim s 4-7 and 21 are 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. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FILLIN "Examiner name" \* MERGEFORMAT HUY Q PHAN whose telephone number is FILLIN "Phone number" \* MERGEFORMAT (571)272-7924 . The examiner can normally be reached FILLIN "Work Schedule?" \* MERGEFORMAT M-F 9am-5pm . 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, Kiesha Bryant can be reached at (571)272-3606. 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. /HUY Q PHAN/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2858
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

May 16, 2023
Application Filed
Mar 06, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §102 (current)

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
55%
Grant Probability
88%
With Interview (+32.9%)
3y 11m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 166 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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