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
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 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ose et al. (PGPub 2018/0301747).
Considering Claim 1, Ose discloses a sheet for an electrode (layer of raw material for anode mixture [0080]), comprising:
an active material layer precursor layer (layer of raw material for anode mixture [0080] containing anode active material [Abstract]) containing an inorganic solid electrolyte (raw material anode mixture contains solid electrolyte [Abstract] that’s inorganic [0037]) having ion conductivity of a metal belonging to Group 1 or Group 2 in the periodic table (solid electrolyte material has Li ion conductivity [0036]), an active material (a would node active material [Abstract]), and a polymer binder (polymer binders [0045]),
wherein the active material layer precursor layer is such that a content of the polymer binder is 3% by mass or less (volume of binder may be 0.3 volume % or more and 4.0 volume% or less so that the active material is maximized for a high energy density [0047], so choosing within this range and coming up with a proportional polymer range of 3% by mass or less to achieve such predicted results would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art) and a filling rate of 35% to 50% (claimed invention defines filling rate as film density / true density [0019], voidage of 100 – (D1 absolute density / D0 true density) x 100 is 43% or more and 54% or less (for a filling rate of 46% - 57%) [0014], or 45% to 52% (for a filling rate of 48% to 55%) [0058], with example values of 52, 53, 54 in Examples 2, 3, and 4 (for a filling rate of 48, 47, 46%) [Table 1]).
Considering Claim 2, Ose discloses that the anode is deposited to a uniform thickness [0080], and may be about 0.1 µm to about 10 mm [0085], and because energy density is optimized [0047], selecting within this range and coming up with a range of 150 µm to 10 mm to achieve such predicted results would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art.
Considering Claim 3, Ose discloses that the inorganic solid electrolyte is a sulfide-based electrolyte (sulfide-based solid electrolyte [0036, 0037]).
Considering Claim 4, Ose discloses that the inorganic solid electrolyte has a particle diameter of 0.1 to 2.5 µm (solid electrolyte particles are 1.0 µm [0097]).
Considering Claim 5, Ose discloses that the active material precursor layer is a positive electrode active material precursor layer (cathode contains raw materials of binder, active material, and solid electrolyte [0063] and made in same way as the anode [0071], so optimizing the same voidage for the purpose of maintaining the ion conducting path and the electron conducting path with balance [0058] would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art) having a film density of 1.4 to 2.0 g/cm3 (made in same way as the anode [0071], absolute density is calculated [0055, 0169, 0174] and because mixture is optimized for a high energy density [0046, 0047] and containing the same lithium metal oxide [0065] and PVDF binder [0110], routinely experimenting with and coming up with an absolute film density of 1.4 to 2.0 g/cm3 would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art.
Considering Claim 6, Ose discloses that the active material precursor layer is a negative electrode active material precursor layer (raw anode material layer [Abstract, 0080]) having a film density of 0.8 to 1.0 g/cm3 (absolute density of anode mixture layer is calculated [0055, 0169, 0174], and because mixture is optimized for a high energy density [0046, 0047] and containing the same silicon and PVDF [0009, 0045, 0102], routinely experimenting with and coming up with an absolute film density of 0.8 to 1.0 g/cm3 would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art).
Considering Claim 7, Ose discloses a manufacturing method for a sheet for an electrode (method of producing raw anode material mixture [Abstract]), which is a method of manufacturing the sheet for an electrode according to claim 1 (see claim 1), in which an electrode composition containing an inorganic solid electrolyte (raw material anode mixture contains solid electrolyte [Abstract] that’s inorganic [0037]) having ion conductivity of a metal belonging to Group 1 or Group 2 (solid electrolyte material has Li ion conductivity [0036]), an active material (anode active material [Abstract]), a polymer binder (polymer binders [0045]), and a dispersion medium (butyl butyrate solution added and mixed [0102, 0098, 0104]) is applied onto a base material and dried (applied onto copper foil anode current collector and dried [0105]) to form an active material precursor layer (forms dried anode mixture layer [0105, [0080], which comes before the electricity passing step that changes the mixtures into the final respective parts [0007]), the manufacturing method comprising:
a step of setting a content of solid contents of the polymer binder to 3% by mass or less to prepare the electrode composition (volume of binder is set to be 0.3 volume % or more and 4.0 volume% or less so that the active material is maximized for a high energy density [0047], so choosing within this range and coming up with a proportional polymer range of 3% by mass or less to achieve such predicted results would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art); and
a step of setting a filling rate of the active material layer precursor layer to 35% to 50% (claimed invention defines filling rate as film density / true density [0019], voidage of 100 – (D1 absolute density / D0 true density) x 100 is set to be 43% or more and 54% or less (for a filling rate of 46% - 57%) [0014], or 45% to 52% (for a filling rate of 48% to 55%) [0058], with example values of 52, 53, 54 in Examples 2, 3, and 4 (for a filling rate of 48, 47, 46%) [Table 1]).
Considering Claim 8, Ose discloses a manufacturing method for an electrode sheet, which is a manufacturing method for an electrode sheet having an active material layer on a base layer (method of producing raw anode material mixture [Abstract], applied onto copper foil anode current collector and dried [0105]), the manufacturing method comprising:
pressing an active material layer precursor layer of a sheet for an electrode obtained by the manufacturing method for a sheet for an electrode according to claim 7, to form an active material layer (precursor layer pressed in later step to form anode layer [0131-0134] to form battery member [0135], see claim 7).
Considering Claim 9, Ose discloses a manufacturing method for an all-soid state secondary battery, which is a manufacturing method for an all-solid state secondary battery (manufacturing method for obtaining all-solid-state lithium ion secondary battery [0135]) including a positive electrode active material layer, a solid electrolyte layer, and a negative electrode active material layer in this order (solid electrolyte layer disposed between anode layer and cathode layer [0083, Figure 1]), the manufacturing method comprising:
pressing and forming at least one of the positive electrode active material layer or the negative electrode active material layer in a state where a sheet for an electrode obtained by the manufacturing method for a sheet for an electrode according to claim 7 is superposed with a solid electrolyte layer or a solid electrolyte layer forming material (cathode, solid electrolyte, and anode are all pressed [0131-0134], see claim 7).
Considering Claim 10, Ose discloses an all-solid state secondary battery (all-solid-state lithium ion secondary battery [0135] manufactured by the manufacturing method for an all-solid state secondary battery according to claim 9 (see claim 9).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER P DOMONE whose telephone number is (571)270-7582. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-4:30 PM.
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/CHRISTOPHER P DOMONE/Primary Patent Examiner
Art Unit 1725
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