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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/12/2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 1- 17 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 1, line 1, delete “A electric” and replace with “An electric”
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites the limitation "an electric machine" in line 4. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 8 recites the limitation "a third state" in line 5. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 9 recites the limitation " a third state" in line 3. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 13 recites the limitation "an electric machine" in lines 3-4. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
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.
Claim(s) 1-7, 10-14, 16-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gasnier et al. An Autonomous Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting IC Based on a Synchronous Multi-Shot Technique (hereinafter Gasnier).
Regarding claims 1 and 13, Gasnier discloses an electric apparatus of an electric machine (comprising: Piezoelectric harvester + rectifier: see reproduced figure below),
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the electric apparatus comprising
a transformer (including Lp and Ls),
a primary coil of the transformer (Lp) being configured to receive electric energy from a harvesting electric circuit (piezoelectric harvester) located within an electric machine (page 1562: the piezoelectric harvester is then discharged to
C
w
s
n
through the Flyback circuit) and
a secondary coil of the transformer being configured to receive electric energy of the harvested electric energy (see page 1562) from the primary coil inductively (page 1563: The inductive coupling primary/secondary of turn ratio m converts a high voltage/low current energy into a high current/low voltage form) and
output the received electric energy (page 1563: allowing the secondary coil
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s
to transfer the energy into the low voltage buffer capacitor
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n
during
T
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) for a capacitor charger (IC; the capacitor
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is able to charge up via the electrical line/charger) of a monitoring system of the electric machine (pages 1561-1562: mechanical energy harvesting is a relevant candidate to power Wireless Sensor Nodes…
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is dedicated to the WSN).
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Although Gasnier does not disclose the system includes a battery charger, Gasnier disclose the system includes a capacitor charger. It would have been obvious to skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Gasnier to replace the battery charger with the capacitor charger as suggested by Gasnier, because it would be advantageous to avoid any chance of chemical spill such as occurs with an aging battery.
Regarding claims 2 and 14, Gasnier discloses the apparatus further comprising a chargeable capacitor (
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), the capacitor charger (see fig. 1 above; E-line) being configured to charge a capacitor (
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) of the monitoring system with the harvested electric energy for the operation of the monitoring system at least partly (pages 1561-1562: mechanical energy harvesting is a relevant candidate to power Wireless Sensor Nodes…
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is dedicated to the WSN).
Regarding claim 3, Gasnier discloses the apparatus further comprising at least one sensor (fig. 1, element WSN) that is configured to receive the harvested electric power (pages 1562:
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is dedicated to the WSN) for measuring an operational property of the electric machine (measuring physical changes).
Regarding claim 4, A discloses the apparatus wherein the at least one sensor is configured to measure vibration of the electric machine (page 1561: this technique is
relevant in the case of broadband, random vibrations compared to MPPT-DC).
Regarding claims 5 and 16, Gasnier discloses the apparatus further comprising a communication unit (112) that is configured to receive electric energy harvested by the harvesting circuit (102), and communicate outside the apparatus (WSN includes a wireless communication device. The wireless communication device is able to transmit the data wirelessly).
Regarding claim 6, Gasnier discloses the apparatus comprising a switch arrangement (fig. 1, elements Kp and Ks), which is configured to switch between two alternative states: a first state and a second state;
the first state being configured to enable a measurement of voltage over of the harvesting circuit (page 1563-1564: when the harvester’s voltage reaches an extremum, Kp is closed; the maximum piezoelectric voltage is detected by observing zero-crossings of its temporal derivative); and
the second state being configured to feed electric energy from the harvesting circuit to the charger (page 1563: Ks is closed allowing the secondary coil
L
s
to transfer the energy into the low voltage buffer capacitor
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during
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s
).
Regarding claim 7, Gasnier discloses the apparatus wherein the controller (page 1562: The “optimized path” implements the SECE technique by controlling Kp and Ks via at least one controller) is configured to determine a load (page 1561: the
Maximum Power Point Tracking technique on DC load (MPPT-DC) can be employed), an electric input current or an electric output current of the electric machine based on measurements of the first state (page 1564: the size of Kp and Ks depends on the maximum current flowing through the inductors Lp and Ls).
Regarding claim 10, Gasnier discloses the apparatus wherein the controller is configured to control the switching arrangement (page 1566: The block Multishot-Generator generates the appropriate impulses to control Kp and Ks).
Regarding claims 11 and 17, Gasnier discloses the apparatus wherein the controller is configured to control the switching arrangement (page 1566: The block Multishot-Generator generates the appropriate impulses to control Kp and Ks) as function of charging level of the capacitor (page 1563: two MOSFETs (Kp and Ks) discharge the piezoelectric capacitance Cp to the storage capacitor
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via a coupled-inductor [Lp and Ls]).
Regarding claim 12, Gasnier discloses the apparatus further comprising one or more processors (fig. 1, element IC); and
one or more memories (702) including computer program code (page 1564: Two voltage supervisors Pgood-ASIC and Pgood-WSN detect when Casic and Cwsn exceed 3V and fall below 2V); the one or more memories and the computer program code configured to, with the one or more processors, cause apparatus at least to:
determine an operational property of the electric machine (page 1564: When the system operates in optimized mode, Max-Detector detects when vp, the output voltage of the energy harvester, reaches a maximum. This event turns Multishot-Generator and Ring-Oscillator on, which enables the IC to precisely control Kp and Ks).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8-9 and 15 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include 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 8 and 15, the prior art fails to teach or suggest further inclusion of the apparatus comprising a switch arrangement, which is configured to switch between three alternative states: a first state, a second state and a third state; the first state being configured to enable a measurement of voltage of the harvesting circuit without load, a third state being configured to connect a known load known resistor in series with the harvesting circuit for enabling a measurement of voltage over the known load resistor; and the switch arrangement being configured to block electric energy feed from the harvesting circuit to any other electric circuit in the first and third state except for the measurements.
Regarding claim 9, the prior art fails to teach or suggest further inclusion of the apparatus wherein the controller is configured to determine a temperature of the stator of the electric machine based on measurements in the first state and the third state.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
IKAHEIMO
US 2021/0088589
Steiner-Jovic et al.
US 9876388 B2
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/ZIXUAN ZHOU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859 08/25/2026
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