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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 4/3/2026 has been entered.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 3/23/2026 was filed after the mailing date of the final office action on 12/3/2025. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 4/3/2026 with respect to new claim 24 is not persuasive. Applicant argues claim 24 is allowable because of the indicated allowable subject matter in claim 16 of application 18/504,620. Examiner disagrees that claim 24 is allowable and asserts that the inductors in the low pass filter provide the claimed current limiter connected in series with the bulk capacitor to limit a current supplied to the bulk capacitor when charging, because the inductance of the inductors limit the current at the turn on of the switch and throughout the charging by limiting the rate of change of the current. Accordingly, claim 24 has been rejected below. Examiner believes the remaining claims contain allowable subject matter.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-19 are objected to because of the following informalities:
in claim 1, line 2 of the last stanza, “is is” should be ‘is’.
in claim 11, line 2 of the last stanza, “is is” should be ‘is’.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 24 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 and a2 as being anticipated by Arduini (US 2023/0223988).
With respect to claim 24, Arduini discloses a packet energy transfer (PET) transmitter (Fig. 8 81 without source) configured to be electrically connected to an electrical source (Fig. 8 HV Isolated 380VDC source) and a PET transmission line (Fig. 8 Twisted-Pair Cable/Phase), the PET transmitter including: input conditioning and protection circuitry (Fig. 8 84b,84c) including an input (Fig. 8 source side input of 84b) configured to be electrically connected to the electrical source, an output (Fig. 8 receiver side output of 84b), and at least one switch (Fig. 48 84b) connected at the output of the input conditioning and protection circuitry; a front end circuit (Fig. 8 89a) having an input connected to the at least one switch and an output configured to be connected to the PET transmission line; and a source controller (Fig. 8 12Vg) electrically connected to the input conditioning and protection circuitry and the front end circuit; wherein the source controller is configured to close the at least one switch of the input conditioning and protection circuitry to electrically connect the electrical source to the output of the front end circuit during transfer periods (Fig. 8 periods when 84a, 84b,84c closed) and wherein the source controller is configured to open the at least one switch to electrically disconnect the electrical source from the output of the front end circuit during sample periods (Fig. 8 periods when 84a, 84b,84c closed); and at least one multi-drop PET receiver (Fig. 8 82) configured to be electrically connected to the PET transmission line (Fig. 8 Twisted-Pari Cable/Phase), the at least one multi-drop PET receiver comprising:
receiver front-end circuitry (Fig. 8 84d) including: a front-end input (Fig. 8 84d transmitter side input) configured to be electrically connected to the PET transmission line; a front-end output (Fig. 8 84d load side output); and at least one switch (Fig. 8 84d) or at least one diode connected at the front-end output; receiver output control and conditioning circuity (Fig. 8 82 not in 83) including: an input connected to the at least one switch or the at least one diode of the receiver front-end circuitry; an output configured to be connected to an electrical load (Fig 8 load in 87c); a bootstrap capacitor (Fig. 8 capacitor in series with resistor and midpoint 86b) connected across the input; and a bulk capacitor (Fig. 8 capacitor in LC filter) connected across the input; and a load controller (Fig. 8 12Vg) operably connected to the receiver front-end circuitry and the receiver output control and conditioning circuity, configured to operate the at least one switch (Fig. 8 84d) or the at least one diode to allow power to flow into the receiver output control and conditioning circuitry during transfer periods (Fig. 8 84d closed) and to cause the at least one switch or the at least one diode to open in order to prevent power to flow into the receiver output circuitry during sample periods (Fig. 8 84d open); and when the PET transmitter is electrically connected to the at least one transmission line and when no PET receiver is electrically connected to the at least one transmission line (Fig. 7 70), there is a minimum effective cross-line capacitance (Fig. 41 Cmin + Ccable) connected across the output of the front end circuit; and wherein the minimum effective cross-line capacitance enables the source controller, during the sample period to differentiate a measured voltage (Fig. 42 V2) at the output of the front end circuit indicative of a fault (Fig. 7 72 FAULT? YES) and a measured voltage at the output of the front end indicative of no fault (Fig. 7 72 FAULT? NO); and wherein the receiver output control and condition circuitry includes a current limiter (Fig. 8 L in LC Filter) connected in series with the bulk capacitor (Fig. 8 C of LC filter) to limit a current supplied to the bulk capacitor when charging (Fig.8 inductance of the inductor limits current rate of change when charging).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 23 and 26-27 are allowed and claims 1-19 are objected to but would be allowed upon overcoming the claim objections state above, while Claim 25 is 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 an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
With respect to claim 1, the prior art does not disclose or suggest, primarily, wherein when the PET transmitter is electrically connected to the PET transmission line and when the at least one multi-drop PET receiver is electrically disconnected from the PET transmission line, there is a minimum effective cross-line capacitance connected across the output of the front end circuit; and wherein the minimum effective cross-line capacitance enables the source controller, during the sample periods to differentiate a measured voltage at the output of the front end circuit indicative of a fault and a measured voltage at the output of the front end indicative of no fault; and
wherein the at least one multi-drop PET receiver has a start-up input impedance that is is sufficient to limit a current drawn by the at least one multi-drop PET receiver from the PET transmission line to below a current level that would indicate a fault on the at least one energized PET transmission line and wherein the current level drawn by the at least one multi-drop PET receiver includes a minimum level of margin.
With respect to claim 11, the prior art does not disclose or suggest, primarily,
wherein the discrete transmitter capacitor has a capacitance level that enables the source controller, during the sample period, to differentiate a measured voltage at the output of the front end circuit indicative of a fault and a measured voltage at the output of the front end indicative of no fault without the at least one multi-drop PET receiver being in electrical communication with the PET transmission line; and wherein the at least one multi-drop PET receiver has a start-up input impedance that is sufficient to limit a current drawn by the at least one multi-drop PET receiver from the PET transmission line to below a current level that would indicate a fault on the at least one energized PET transmission line and wherein the current level drawn by the at least one multi-drop PET receiver includes a minimum level of margin.
With respect to claim 23, the prior art does not disclose or suggest, primarily,
wherein when the PET transmitter is electrically connected to the PET transmission line and when the at least one multi-drop PET receiver is electrically disconnected from the PET transmission line, there is a minimum effective cross-line capacitance connected across the output of the front end circuit; and wherein the minimum effective cross-line capacitance enables the source controller, during the sample periods to differentiate a measured voltage at the output of the front end circuit indicative of a fault and a measured voltage at the output of the front end indicative of no fault; and wherein the receiver output control and conditioning circuity includes a bulk capacitor switch connected in series with the bulk capacitor and operated under the control of the load controller to limit a current supplied to the bulk capacitor when charging.
With respect to claim 26, the prior art does not disclose or suggest, primarily,
a load controller operably connected to the receiver front-end circuitry, the receiver output control and conditioning circuity, and the synchronizer circuit; wherein after the first plurality of transfer periods, the load controller disables the synchronizer circuit and operates the at least one switch to close the at least one switch in order to allow power to flow into the receiver output control and conditioning circuitry during subsequent transfer periods and to cause the at least one switch to open in order to prevent power to flow into the receiver output circuitry during a subsequent sample periods; wherein when the PET transmitter is electrically connected to the PET transmission line and when the at least one PET receiver is electrically disconnected from the PET transmission line, there is a minimum effective cross-line capacitance connected across the output of the front end circuit; and wherein the minimum effective cross-line capacitance enables the source controller, during the sample periods to differentiate a measured voltage at the output of the front end circuit indicative of a fault and a measured voltage at the output of the front end indicative of no fault.
With respect to claim 27, the prior art does not disclose or suggest, primarily,
a load controller operably connected to the receiver front-end circuitry, the receiver output control and conditioning circuity, and the synchronizer circuit; wherein after the first plurality of transfer periods, the load controller disables the synchronizer circuit and operates the at least one switch to close the at least one switch in order to allow power to flow into the receiver output control and conditioning circuitry during subsequent transfer periods and to cause the at least one switch to open in order to prevent power to flow into the receiver output circuitry during a subsequent sample periods; wherein when the PET transmitter is electrically connected to the PET transmission line and when the at least one PET receiver is electrically disconnected from the PET transmission line, there is a minimum effective cross-line capacitance connected across the output of the front end circuit; and wherein the minimum effective cross-line capacitance enables the source controller, during the sample periods to differentiate a measured voltage at the output of the front end circuit indicative of a fault and a measured voltage at the output of the front end indicative of no fault.
The aforementioned limitations in combination with all remaining limitations of the respective claims are believed to render the aforementioned indicated claim and any dependent claims thereof patentable over the art of record.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: With respect to claim 25, the prior art does not disclose or suggest, in combination with the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims, primarily, wherein when the PET transmitter is electrically connected to the PET transmission line and when the at least one multi-drop PET receiver is electrically disconnected from the PET transmission line, there is a minimum effective cross-line capacitance connected across the output of the front end circuit; and wherein the minimum effective cross-line capacitance enables the source controller, during the sample periods to differentiate a measured voltage at the output of the front end circuit indicative of a fault and a measured voltage at the output of the front end indicative of no fault; and wherein the receiver output control and conditioning circuity includes a current limiter connected in series with the bulk capacitor to limit a current supplied to the bulk capacitor when charging, wherein the receiver output control and conditioning circuity includes a current limiter switch configured to close synchronously with a start of each transfer period and open during a start of each sample period.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HARRY RAYMOND BEHM whose telephone number is (571)272-8929. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 8-5 EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thienvu Tran can be reached at 571-270-1276. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/HARRY R BEHM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838
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