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 § 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) 1-5, 9 and 11-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jin et al. (US 20140233267) in view of Chapuis et al. (US 8503199).
Regarding claim 1, Jin teaches a high voltage generator, comprising:
an inverter bridge including a first bridge leg and a second bridge leg (figure 1);
a first resonant branch Cr coupled in series to the first bridge leg;
a transformer 126 coupled in series between the first resonant branch and the second bridge leg;
a second resonant branch Cp coupled in series with the transformer; wherein the second resonant branch includes a capacitor connected in parallel and
a rectifier circuit 23 coupled with the transformer for providing an output voltage.
However Jin fails to teach the second resonant branch includes an inductor.
Chapuis teaches resonant branch includes an inductor 27.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to adapt the resonant branch of Jin with the inductor as taught by Chapuis, since it would provide better efficiency.
Regarding claim 2, Jin teaches the first resonant branch comprises a series resonant branch comprising capacitors and/or inductors Lr.
Regarding claim 3, Jin teaches the second resonant branch is coupled in series with a primary side or a secondary side of the transformer (figure 1).
Regarding claim 4, Jin teaches a capacitor parallelly coupled to a primary side of the transformer (figure 1).
Regarding claim 5, Jin teaches the first bridge leg or the second bridge leg includes at least two switch transistors distributed in series, the switch transistor comprises an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), the IGBT is operated between a first switching frequency and a second switching frequency, the first switching frequency is determined based on the first resonant branch and the second resonant branch, and the second switching frequency is determined by the second resonant branch (para 54).
Regarding claim 9, Jin teaches a method for controlling a high voltage generator, the high voltage generator comprising: an inverter bridge, the inverter bridge comprising a first bridge leg and a second bridge leg; a first resonant branch, the first resonant branch being coupled with the first bridge leg; a transformer coupled in series between the first resonant branch and the second bridge leg; a second resonant branch, the second resonant branch being coupled in series with the transformer, wherein the second resonant branch includes a capacitor connected in parallel; and a rectifier circuit, the rectifier circuit being coupled with the transformer for providing output voltage; the method comprising: controlling a phase relationship between a bridge output voltage and an output current of the inverter bridge to control a frequency of a driving signal of the inverter bridge.
However Jin fails to teach the second resonant branch includes an inductor.
Chapuis teaches resonant branch includes an inductor 27.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to adapt the resonant branch of Jin with the inductor as taught by Chapuis, since it would provide better efficiency.
Regarding claim 11, Jin teaches a phase of the bridge output voltage is ahead of a phase of the output current of the inverter bridge (para 68).
Regarding claim 12, Jin teaches the first bridge leg is configured to couple to an anode of an X-ray generation device, and the second bridge leg is configured to couple to a cathode of the X-ray generating device (para 49).
Regarding claim 13, Jin teaches the first bridge leg or the second bridge leg includes at least two switch transistors distributed in series, the first bridge leg or the second bridge leg comprises a plurality of insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), the plurality of IGBTs are operated between a first switching frequency and a second switching frequency, the first switching frequency is determined based on the first resonant branch and the second resonant branch, and the second switching frequency is determined by the second resonant branch (para 54).
Regarding claim 14, Jin teaches the high voltage generator further includes a capacitor parallelly coupled to a primary side of the transformer (figure 1).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15-20 are allowed.
Claims 6-8 and 10 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claims 6-8, the prior art fails to teach a control circuit, the control circuit comprising a first control branch, a second control branch, and a modulator, and both the first control branch and the second control branch being coupled to the modulator; wherein the first control branch is operable to obtain an output current and a bridge output voltage of the inverter bridge, and to produce a first control signal based on the output current and the bridge output voltage of the inverter bridge; wherein the second control branch is operable to receive a voltage feedback signal from the rectifier circuit or an X-ray generating device, and to produce a second control signal based on the voltage feedback signal as claimed in claim 6.
Regarding claim 10, the prior art fails to teach the first bridge leg or the second bridge leg includes at least two switch transistors distributed in series, and controlling the phase relationship between the bridge output voltage and the output current of the inverter bridge to control the frequency of the driving signal of the inverter bridge comprises: obtaining the output current and the bridge output voltage of the inverter bridge; generating a phase signal based on the bridge output voltage and the output current; generating a first control signal based on the phase signal; obtaining an output voltage of the rectifier circuit; producing a second control signal based on the output voltage of the rectifier circuit; and generating the driving signal for the switch transistors for driving the switch transistors to operate based on the first control signal and the second control signal as claimed in claim 10.
Regarding claims 15-20, the prior art fails to teach the first control branch comprises: a first zero-crossing comparator, an input of the first zero-crossing comparator being coupled with an output of the first bridge leg; a second zero-crossing comparator, an input of the second zero-crossing comparator being coupled with an output of the inverter bridge; a phase delay coupled in series to the first zero-crossing comparator; and a phase comparator, an output of the phase delay and an output of the second zero-crossing comparator being coupled with an input of the phase comparator as claimed in independent claim 15.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HOON K SONG whose telephone number is (571)272-2494. The examiner can normally be reached on M to Th 10am to 7pm.
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/HOON K SONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2884
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