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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant election of group I, claims 1-8 and 16-20, without traverse is acknowledged. Claims 9-15 are withdrawn from consideration.
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.
Claim(s) 1-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ma et al. ("Method of junction temperature estimation and over temperature protection used for electric vehicle's IGBT power modules," Microelectronics Reliability, 88–90, pp 1226-1230, 2018), (hereinafter, Ma).
RE Claim 1, Ma discloses a method of junction temperature estimation, based on thermal impedance model, and over temperature protection used for electric vehicle's IGBT power modules that is being implemented in electrical vehicles to dynamically achieve better thermal reliability and protect the IGBT power module. Ma discloses a method for estimating a power device junction temperature, comprising:
via a controller “temperature measuring circuit”, referring to FIG. 2, estimating a temperature difference “Zth×P (t)” between the power device junction temperature Tj and a temperature of a substrate TC, referring to equations 1 and 2 [right-hand column, page 1227]. It is the examiner position that the term “Zth×P (t)”, in which P (t) represents the power losses and Zth is the thermal impedance that is a function of instantaneous thermal impedance and thermal parameters, represents the temperature difference between the power device junction temperature Tj and a temperature of a substrate TC, hence meeting the claimed limitation;
and via the controller, estimating the power device junction temperature Tj via adding the temperature of the substrate TC and the temperature difference “Zth×P (t)” between the power device junction and the substrate, referring to equations 1 and 2 and the aforementioned explanation above.
RE Claim 2, Ma discloses a method, further comprising adjusting operation of a power device in response to the power device junction temperature Tj [right-hand column, section 3, lines 9-12, page 1227].
RE Claim 3, Ma discloses a method, where adjusting operation of the power device includes reducing an amount of power flowing through the power device [left-hand column, last paragraph, lines 14-19]. It is the examiner position that the increase in junction temperature is caused by power losses, which is related to the current flowing through the power device and the DC bus voltage of the inverter. Since, the DC bus voltage remains basically constant, and the output current can be reduced by derating “reducing” output power of the inverter, correspondingly the junction temperature can be reduced. Therefore, when the junction temperature exceeds the over temperature warning value (it can be 90% of the rated junction temperature), the electric vehicle inverter performs a derating operation. In order to diminish the impact on the operating conditions of the electric vehicle, the derating operation is terminated once the temperature falls to the cooling recovery value. Therefore, the claimed limitation is met.
RE Claim 4, Ma discloses a method, where the temperature difference is based on a power loss amount P (t) of the power device “IGBT”, referring to equations 1 and 2 and Claim 1 rejection above.
RE Claim 5, Ma discloses a method, where the temperature difference is also based on a coolant temperature [left-hand column, section 3.2, lines 7-9, 19-23, right-hand-column, lines 1-7].
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.
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 non-obviousness.
Claim(s) 6-8 and 16-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ma et al. ("Method of junction temperature estimation and over temperature protection used for electric vehicle's IGBT power modules," Microelectronics Reliability, 88–90, pp 1226-1230, 2018), (hereinafter, Ma) in view SINGH et al. (US 2017/0102437), (hereinafter, SINGH).
RE Claims 6-8, Ma does not disclose a method, where the electric device is a SiC metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) or where the power device is an n-channel or p-channel MOSFET.
However, in the same field of endeavor, SINGH discloses methods and apparatuses for monitoring an operation of a power electronic inverter, deployed in hybrid vehicles, in order to analyze a manner in which a load connected to the power electronic inverter, in which estimating a value of the junction temperature of an IGBT power module is estimated, wherein either silicon carbide MOSFET, with either p-channel or a silicon carbide IGBT can be used for the power module.
Furthermore, examiner takes an Official Notice that n-channel MOSFET is a well-know alternate transistor to p-channel MOSFET, or used as a complement to the p-channel functions.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, prior to the effective filing date of the instant application use the P-channel MOSFET of SINGH disclosure, or the well-known alternative complement n-channel MOSFET as the power module of Ma instead of the IGBT as a well-known power transistor for fast efficient switching and low-cost manufacturing process.
RE Claim 16, Ma discloses a method of junction temperature estimation, based on thermal impedance model, and over temperature protection used for electric vehicle's IGBT power modules that is being implemented in electrical vehicles to dynamically achieve better thermal reliability and protect the IGBT power module. Ma discloses a method for estimating a power device junction temperature, comprising:
generating one or more relationships between a temperature difference “Zth×P (t)” between the junction temperature Tj of the power device IGBT and the temperature of a substrate TC, referring to equations 1 and 2. It is the examiner position that the term “Zth×P (t)”, in which P (t) represents the power losses and Zth is the thermal impedance that is a function of instantaneous thermal impedance and thermal parameters, represents the temperature difference between the power device junction temperature Tj and a temperature of a substrate TC, hence meeting the claimed limitation. Furthermore, the measurement performed by the circuit shown in FIG. 2 imply that the measure parameters measure is a result of being generated, hence meeting the claimed limitation;
via the controller “circuit shown in FIG. 2”, estimating the power device junction temperature Tj via adding the temperature of the substrate TC and the temperature difference “Zth×P (t)” between the power device junction and the substrate, referring to equations 1 and 2 and the aforementioned explanation above; and
via the controller “circuit shown in FIG. 2”, estimating the temperature of the power device via adding the temperature of the substrate TC and the temperature difference “Zth×P (t)” between the junction temperature Tj of the power device IGBT and the temperature of the substrate TC.
Ma does not discloses storing the one or more relationships to memory of a controller.
However, in the same field of endeavor, SINGH discloses methods and apparatuses for monitoring an operation of a power electronic inverter, deployed in hybrid vehicles, in order to analyze a manner in which a load connected to the power electronic inverter, in which estimating a value of the junction temperature of an IGBT power module is estimated, wherein a memory is used in the manipulation, computation of data used in the monitoring process.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in that art, prior to the effective filing date of the instant application, to use a memory for storing the one or more relationships to memory of a controller in order to achieve complete representation for calculation and displaying data.
RE Claim 17, Ma discloses a method, further comprising adjusting operation of a power device in response to the power device junction temperature Tj [right-hand column, section 3, lines 9-12, page 1227]. Since the IGBT power modules thermal model is represented by multi-parallel R/C combination, adjusting operation of power device in response to the power device junction will adjust a second power device as well.
Ma does not explicitly disclose a method, comprising storing the one or more relationships to memory of a controller of a second power device in response to the temperature of the power device.
However, SINGH discloses methods and apparatuses for monitoring an operation of a power electronic inverter, deployed in hybrid vehicles, in order to analyze a manner in which a load connected to the power electronic inverter, in which estimating a value of the junction temperature of an IGBT power module is estimated, wherein a memory is used in the manipulation, computation of data used in the monitoring process with feedback loop to utilize measured day to modify and adjust current and voltages, referring to FIG. 1A.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the instant application to storing the one or more relationships, such as the relationship shown in equation 1, to memory of a controller of a second power device in response to the temperature of the power device in order to synchronize and dynamically adjust the junction temperature of an IGBT power module.
RE Claims 18 and 19, Ma does not disclose a method, wherein the power modules composing IGBT power devices, hence multiple IGBT devices.
Ma does not disclose a method, where the electric device is a SiC metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) or where the power device is an n-channel or p-channel MOSFET.
However, in the same field of endeavor, SINGH discloses methods and apparatuses for monitoring an operation of a power electronic inverter, deployed in hybrid vehicles, in order to analyze a manner in which a load connected to the power electronic inverter, in which estimating a value of the junction temperature of an IGBT power module is estimated, wherein either silicon carbide MOSFET, with either p-channel or a silicon carbide IGBT can be used for the power module with first and second silicon carbide MOSFET devices, hence meeting the limitation of Claim 19.
Furthermore, examiner takes an Official Notice that n-channel MOSFET is a well-known alternate transistor to p-channel MOSFET, or used as a complement to the p-channel functions.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, prior to the effective filing date of the instant application use the P-channel MOSFET of SINGH disclosure, or the well-known alternative complement n-channel MOSFET as the power module of Ma instead of the IGBT as a well-known power transistor for fast efficient switching and low-cost manufacturing process.
RE Claims 20, Ma discloses a method, where the power device is part of a power converter/inverter. Although Ma does not disclose explicitly a converter, however, converter/inverter are grouped together, wherein an inverter converts direct current (DC) from the battery to alternating current (AC) for the motor. A converter (like a DC/DC converter) adjusts voltage levels (e.g., from high-voltage to low-voltage). Hence the claimed limitation is met implicitly.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YASSER ABDELAZIEZ whose telephone number is (571)270-5783. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9 am - 6 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Leonard Chang can be reached at (571)270-3691. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/YASSER A ABDELAZIEZ, PhD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2898
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