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 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.
Claims 1-3, 5-11, 13-17, 19 & 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Park (US 2019/0302047)
With regard to claims 1-3, 5 & 6, Park, in Figures 1 & 3-5, discloses an integrated circuit (100, paragraph 0034) configured to: detect, by the IC, a presence of liquid in an electrical connector (paragraph 0032); responsive to the presence of liquid in the electrical connector, remove a bias voltage from at least some conductors of the electrical connector (paragraph 0044 teaches that when water is detected, a bias voltage is removed from the pin and current is no longer provided to the pin); monitor a bus voltage of the electrical connector (the voltage is then measured again to determine if the voltage drops below a lower voltage threshold, paragraphs 0044 & 0057-0062); and based on a value of the bus voltage determined via the monitoring, perform a mitigation action responsive to the presence of liquid in the electrical connector (if voltage is maintained above the second threshold after a period of time the controller directs the display to operate a warning screen, paragraph 0045) (re claim 1), wherein responsive to the bus voltage not decreasing to be less than a threshold value, the mitigation action includes providing a notification to a user (as seen in Fig. 5A, liquid is detected when the voltage does not drop below Thres 2 and paragraph 0045 teaches that a notification is provided to a user) (re claim 2), wherein responsive to the bus voltage decreasing to be less than a threshold value, the mitigation action includes applying a pull-down resistance to the at least some conductors (paragraph 0114) (re claim 3), wherein responsive to removing the bias voltage from the at least some conductors of the electrical connector, the liquid includes a pull-up resistance for the at least some conductors to the bus voltage (VDD as seen in Fig. 3) (re claim 5), wherein the IC is configured to detect the presence of liquid in an electrical connector via one of electrical impedance spectroscopy, leakage measurement, or pulsed measurement (the measurement can be seen to be a leakage measurement as the leakage of the current during the presence of liquid is detected) (re claim 6).
With regard to claims 7-11, Park, in Figures 1 & 3-5, discloses a method, comprising: introducing an electrical current into an electrical connector (provided by Ctrl, paragraph 0044 & 0056); measuring a voltage in the electrical connector provided responsive to the electrical current (compare to Thres1); determining, based on a value of the voltage, a presence of a foreign material in the electrical connector; and responsive to the presence of the foreign material in the electrical connector, removing a bias voltage from at least some conductors of the electrical connector ((paragraph 0044 teaches that when water is detected, a bias voltage is removed from the pin and current is no longer provided to the pin)) (re claim 7), further comprising: monitoring a bus voltage of the electrical connector; and based on a value of the bus voltage determined via the monitoring, performing a corrosion mitigation action responsive to the presence of the foreign material in the electrical connector (the voltage is then measured again to determine if the voltage drops below a lower voltage threshold, paragraphs 0044 & 0057-0062) (re claim 8), further comprising, responsive to determining via the monitoring that the bus voltage is greater than a threshold value after a programmed amount of time, providing a notification to a user (as seen in Fig. 5A, liquid is detected when the voltage does not drop below Thres 2 and paragraph 0045 teaches that a notification is provided to a user) (re claim 9), further comprising, responsive to determining via the monitoring that the bus voltage is less than a threshold value, applying a pull-down resistance to the at least some conductors (paragraph 0114) (re claim 10), wherein responsive to removing the bias voltage from the at least some conductors of the electrical connector, the at least some conductors have a voltage potential difference less than a difference threshold with respect to the bus voltage (as seen in Fig. 5A) (re claim 11).
With regard to claims 13-17, 19 & 20, Park, in Figures 1 & 3-5, discloses an apparatus, comprising: a Universal Serial Bus (USB) receptacle (paragraph 0054); and a USB controller (100) coupled to the USB receptacle (11), the USB controller configured to: detect a presence of liquid in the USB receptacle (paragraph 0044 teaches that when water is detected, a bias voltage is removed from the pin and current is no longer provided to the pin); and responsive to the presence of liquid in the USB receptacle, remove a bias voltage from at least some conductors of the USB receptacle (the voltage is then measured again to determine if the voltage drops below a lower voltage threshold, paragraphs 0044 & 0057-0062) (re claim 13), wherein the USB controller is configured to: monitor a bus voltage of the USB receptacle; and based on a value of the bus voltage determined via the monitoring, perform a corrosion mitigation action responsive to the presence of liquid in the USB receptacle (if voltage is maintained above the second threshold after a period of time the controller directs the display to operate a warning screen, paragraph 0045) (re claim 14), wherein responsive to determining via the monitoring that the bus voltage is greater than a threshold value, the USB controller is configured to provide a notification to a user (as seen in Fig. 5A, liquid is detected when the voltage does not drop below Thres 2 and paragraph 0045 teaches that a notification is provided to a user) (re claim 15), wherein the USB controller is configured to provide the notification to the user responsive to the bus voltage remaining greater than the threshold value for greater than a programmed amount of time (as seen in Fig. 5A) (re claim 16), wherein responsive to determining via the monitoring that the bus voltage is less than a threshold value, the USB controller is configured to apply a pull-down resistance to the at least some conductors (paragraph 0114) (re claim 17), wherein the USB controller is configured to perform at least one of electrical impedance spectroscopy, leakage measurement, or pulsed measurement to detect the presence of liquid in the USB receptacle (the measurement can be seen to be a leakage measurement as the leakage of the current during the presence of liquid is detected) (re claim 19), wherein the at least some conductors include a USB type C configuration channel pin (paragraph 0054) (re claim 20).
Claims 1-3, 5-11, 13-17, 19 & 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lim (US 2018/0018934).
With regard to claims 1-3, 5 & 6, Lim, in Figure 7, discloses an integrated circuit (IC) (paragraph 0096 teaches that the elements 810-860 of device 101 may be implemented as an IC) configured to: detect, by the IC, a presence of liquid in an electrical connector (1000, paragraph 0093 & 0099); responsive to the presence of liquid in the electrical connector, remove a bias voltage (provided by power providing circuit 830) from at least some conductors (CC1 or CC2) of the electrical connector (paragraph 109 teaches that toggling control circuit 820 disconnects the power providing circuit 830 via switch 840 when liquid is detected); monitor a bus voltage of the electrical connector; and based on a value of the bus voltage determined via the monitoring, perform a mitigation action responsive to the presence of liquid in the electrical connector (paragraph 0103 teaches that a notification of the foreign object is transmitted which would allow a user to remove the liquid) (re claim 1), wherein responsive to the bus voltage not decreasing to be less than a threshold value (V threshold of Fig. 8), the mitigation action includes providing a notification to a user (paragraph 0103 teaches that a notification of the foreign object is transmitted) (re claim 2), wherein responsive to the bus voltage decreasing to be less than a threshold value, the mitigation action includes applying a pull-down resistance to the at least some conductors (paragraph 0124) (re claim 3), wherein responsive to removing the bias voltage from the at least some conductors of the electrical connector, the liquid includes a pull-up resistance for the at least some conductors to the bus voltage (internal resistance of power providing circuit 830) (re claim 5), wherein the IC is configured to detect the presence of liquid in an electrical connector via one of electrical impedance spectroscopy, leakage measurement, or pulsed measurement (sensing circuit 810 of Figs. 7 & 8 would necessarily detect a leakage measurement) (re claim 6).
With regard to claims 7-11, Lim, in Figure 7, discloses a method, comprising: introducing an electrical current into an electrical connector (paragraph 0093 teaches that a specified current is always applied to a CC contact); measuring a voltage in the electrical connector provided responsive to the electrical current (via 810, paragraph 0099); determining, based on a value of the voltage, a presence of a foreign material in the electrical connector (paragraph 0099); and responsive to the presence of the foreign material in the electrical connector, removing a bias voltage from at least some conductors of the electrical connector (paragraph 0109) (re claim 7), further comprising: monitoring a bus voltage of the electrical connector; and based on a value of the bus voltage determined via the monitoring, performing a corrosion mitigation action responsive to the presence of the foreign material in the electrical connector (paragraph 0103 teaches that a notification of the foreign object is transmitted which would allow a user to remove the liquid) (re claim 8), further comprising, responsive to determining via the monitoring that the bus voltage is greater than a threshold value (V threshold of Fig. 8) after a programmed amount of time, providing a notification to a user (paragraph 0103 teaches that a notification of the foreign object is transmitted) (re claim 9), further comprising, responsive to determining via the monitoring that the bus voltage is less than a threshold value, applying a pull-down resistance to the at least some conductors (paragraph 0124) (re claim 10), wherein responsive to removing the bias voltage from the at least some conductors of the electrical connector, the at least some conductors have a voltage potential difference less than a difference threshold with respect to the bus voltage (turning off switches 240 would isolate the input and would remove a potential difference) (re claim 11).
With regard to claims 13-17, 19 & 20, Lim, in Figure 7, discloses an apparatus, comprising: a Universal Serial Bus (USB) receptacle (1000, paragraph 0092); and a USB controller (820-860, paragraphs 0092-0096) coupled to the USB receptacle, the USB controller configured to: detect a presence of liquid in the USB receptacle; and responsive to the presence of liquid in the USB receptacle (paragraph 0099), remove a bias voltage from at least some conductors of the USB receptacle (paragraph 0109) (re claim 13), wherein the USB controller is configured to: monitor a bus voltage of the USB receptacle; and based on a value of the bus voltage determined via the monitoring, perform a corrosion mitigation action responsive to the presence of liquid in the USB receptacle (paragraph 0103 teaches that a notification of the foreign object is transmitted which would allow a user to remove the liquid) (re claim 14), wherein responsive to determining via the monitoring that the bus voltage is greater than a threshold value, the USB controller is configured to provide a notification to a user (paragraph 0103 teaches that a notification of the foreign object is transmitted) (re claim 15), wherein the USB controller is configured to provide the notification to the user responsive to the bus voltage remaining greater than the threshold value for greater than a programmed amount of time (paragraph 0103) (re claim 16), wherein responsive to determining via the monitoring that the bus voltage is less than a threshold value, the USB controller is configured to apply a pull-down resistance to the at least some conductors (paragraph 0124) (re claim 17), wherein the USB controller is configured to perform at least one of electrical impedance spectroscopy, leakage measurement, or pulsed measurement to detect the presence of liquid in the USB receptacle (sensing circuit 810 of Figs. 7 & 8 would necessarily detect a leakage measurement) (re claim 19), wherein the at least some conductors include a USB type C configuration channel pin (paragraph 0123) (re claim 20).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 12 & 18 would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claim 4 would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims because the prior art of record does not teach or fairly suggest an IC comprising all the features as recited in the claims and in combination with responsive to the presence of liquid in the electrical connector, apply a second bias voltage to the at least some conductors of the electrical connector, the second bias voltage being greater than the bias voltage and less than or equal to the bus voltage.
Claim 12 would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims because the prior art of record does not teach or fairly suggest a method comprising all the features as recited in the claims and in combination with responsive to the presence of the foreign material in the electrical connector, applying a second bias voltage to the at least some conductors of the electrical connector, the second bias voltage being greater than the bias voltage and less than or equal to the bus voltage.
Claim 18 would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims because the prior art of record does not teach or fairly suggest an apparatus comprising all the features as recited in the claims and in combination with responsive to the presence of the liquid in the USB receptacle, the USB controller being configured to apply a second bias voltage to the at least some conductors, the second bias voltage being greater than the bias voltage and less than or equal to the bus voltage.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Zhu (US 2020/0235563), Tyrrell (US 2020/0235563) and Shimuzu (US 2021/0407458) all teach a system to detect a liquid present in a USB-C connector and to perform a mitigation operation if a liquid is detected.
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/Scott Bauer/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838