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 .
This non-final office action is responsive to Applicants' application filed on 12/22/23. Claims 1-20 are presented for examination and are pending for the reasons indicated herein below.
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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 1-2, 11, 19-20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zannoth et al. (US 10862472 B1 and hereinafter as Zan)
Regarding claim 1. Zan teaches a power rail generation system [fig 4] comprising:
a first power rail generator [3] configured to: generate a first power rail voltage for a first gate driver [32 or 34], the first gate driver being configured to drive a switching operation [function of 15] of a first power switch [18] of a first switching converter [converter in this case is understood to be a inverter]; and regulate [function of preceding elements to 32 or 34] the first power rail voltage to have a substantially constant first voltage difference [i.e. voltage applied to 15] from a first local voltage [VBAT] during operation of the first switching converter.
Regarding claim 2. Zan teaches the power rail generation system of claim 1, further comprising: a code generator configured to: generate a digital code [212]; and provide the digital code to the first power rail generator [212 is indirectly provided to 32]; wherein the first power rail generator is configured to generate the first power rail voltage using the digital code [output of 32 is based on 212].
Regarding claim 11. Zan teaches the power generation system of claim 1, wherein the first power rail generator is configured to: generate a second power rail voltage for a second gate driver [secondary 3, 34], the second gate driver being configured to drive a switching operation of a second power switch of the first switching converter;
and regulate the second power rail voltage to have a substantially constant second voltage difference from a second local voltage [output of 12] during operation of the first switching converter.
Regarding claim 19. Zan teaches an apparatus [fig 4] comprising:
a plurality of switching converters [each 15 regulates a phase]; and a power rail generation system [power rail system of fig 4] comprising
a plurality of power rail generators; wherein: each of the switching converters comprises one of the plurality of power rail generators [3]; and each of the power rail generators is configured to: generate a power rail voltage [power in 3] for a gate driver [32/34] of the switching converter that the power rail generator is part of, the gate driver being configured to drive a switching operation [function of 15] of a power switch [i.e. switch of 15] of the switching converter; and regulate the power rail voltage to have a substantially constant voltage difference from a local voltage [VBAT] during operation of the switching converter [function of 40 with 204].
Regarding method claim 20, note that under MPEP 2112.02, the principles of inherency, if a prior art device, in its normal and usual operation, would necessarily perform the method claimed, then the method claimed will be considered to be anticipated by the prior art device. When the prior art device is the same as a device described in the specification for carrying out the claimed method, it can be assumed the device "inherently performs the claimed process. In re King, 801 F.2d 1324, 231 USPQ 136 (Fed Cir. 1986). Therefore the previous rejections based on the apparatus will not be repeated.
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 of this title, 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.
Claims 3-4 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zannoth et al. (US 10862472 B1 and hereinafter as Zan) in view of Lenz et al. (US 20090322407 A1)
Regarding claim 3. Zan teaches the power rail generation system of claim 2, However, Zan does not explicitly mention wherein the code generator comprises a bit counter configured to generate the digital code.
Lenz teaches wherein the code generator comprises a bit counter configured to generate the digital code [see fig 6, 33]. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the features of Lenz in order to reduce jitter or propagation delays and provide a stable switching frequency.
Regarding claim 4. Zan teaches the power rail generation system of claim 3, wherein the bit counter is configured to receive a first clock signal and a digital supply voltage [see fig 6, 33, supply 5 volts and CLK].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-10 and 12-18 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, and if the claim objections stated above were overcome.
Examiner Note
The examiner cites particular columns and lines numbers in the references as applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, the applicant fully consider the references in their entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the examiner.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Bryan Perez whose telephone number is (571)272-8837. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon.-Fri. (7:30 – 5:00).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Crystal Hammond, can be reached on (571) 270-1682. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRYAN R PEREZ/Examiner, Art Unit 2838