DETAILED ACTION
Notice to Applicant
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
2. Claims 1-12 are pending.
Priority
3. Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
4. 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.
5. Claims 4-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Cha et al. (US 2022/0158468 – hereinafter “Cha”).
Per claim 4, Cha teaches a method for establishing reference samples of a battery, comprising:
providing a battery (Fig. 1; battery B; ¶35) or a battery model, the battery model is configured to simulate charging and/or discharging behaviors of the battery;
charging and/or discharging the battery or the battery model with a current (The battery B may be charged or discharged when a switch SW provided on a current path is turned on (Fig. 1; ¶37));
changing the current at least once to obtain a voltage-capacity curve of the battery under a plurality of varying current charge and/or discharge conditions (A plurality of capacity curves 201-204 are determined that each indicate a correlation between a voltage history and a capacity history acquired during a particular charge/discharge condition. A first capacity curve 201 is determined when the battery B is charged with a first constant current, a second capacity curve 202 is determined when the battery B is discharged with the first constant current, a third capacity curve 203 is determined when the battery B is charged with a second constant current different from the first constant current, and a fourth capacity curve 204 is determined when the battery B is discharged with the second constant current (Fig. 2; ¶47-51)); and
wherein the voltage-capacity curve of the battery is grouped and curve evaluated based on the varying currents to obtain a plurality voltage-capacity curve samples of the battery under a plurality of stable currents charging and/or discharging conditions (The capacity curves 201 and 202 are obtained through charging and discharging with the first constant current, respectively, and are used to generate a first hysteresis value that is used to determine degradation information of the battery. The capacity curves 203 and 204 are obtained through charging and discharging with the second constant current, respectively, and are used to generate a second hysteresis value that is used to determine degradation information of the battery (Fig. 5; ¶64 and 86)).
Per claim 5, Cha teaches the method according to claim 4, wherein providing the battery model comprises performing a dynamic current control on the battery, and using a resistor-capacitor (RC) equivalent circuit formula to calculate parameters of circuit components to establish a RC equivalent circuit of the battery model (Cha describes determining the capacity curves 201-204 by acquiring the voltage history and the capacity history of the battery B under particular charge/discharge conditions (¶47-51). Therefore, Cha is directed to charging and discharging an actual battery rather than a battery model).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
6. 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.
7. Claims 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious in view of Cha and Lee (US 2016/0001670).
Per claim 6, Cha does not explicitly teach the method according to claim 5, wherein charging and/or discharging the battery or the battery model with a current comprises inputting a plurality of varying current sequences into the RC equivalent circuit to simultaneously generate the voltage-capacity curve under the plurality varying currents charging and/or discharging conditions.
In contrast, Lee teaches a battery management system wherein a controller is programmed to provide injection current inputs to a model configured to simulate, in response to the inputs, terminal voltage outputs of a battery pack. The model may be an equivalent circuit model using one or more R-C circuits (Abstract and ¶23).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method of Cha such that charging and/or discharging the battery or the battery model with a current comprises inputting a plurality of varying current sequences into the RC equivalent circuit to simultaneously generate the voltage-capacity curve under the plurality varying currents charging and/or discharging conditions. One of ordinary skill would make such a modification for the purpose of simulating voltage responses of a battery using an equivalent circuit model configured to receive current inputs (Lee; Abstract).
Per claim 7, Cha in view of Lee teaches the method according to claim 6, wherein grouping and curve evaluation of the voltage-capacity curve of the battery comprises grouping by the inputted plurality of varying current sequences (In the method of Cha in view of Lee, a first group may consist of the capacity curves 201 and 202, which are derived from the first constant current, and a second group may consist of the capacity curves 203 and 204, which are derived from the second constant current (Cha; ¶47-51)).
Claim Objections
8. Claim 2 is objected to due to the following informality.
Per claim 2, it appears that the phrase “comprises a current difference is estimated” should be revised to “comprises a current difference estimated.”
Allowable Subject Matter
9. Claims 1, 3, and 8-12 are deemed allowable. In particular, the following feature substantially disclosed in independent claims 1 and 8 is not believed to be taught or suggested by the prior art of record: comparing the charge and/or discharge data of the battery with at least one reference curve in the voltage-capacity curve samples to determine whether the battery is charged and/or discharged normally; and when the charge and/or discharge data of the battery deviates from the reference curve, a leakage current and a leakage resistance of the battery are calculated.
Conclusion
10. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAS A. SANGHERA whose telephone number is (571)272-4787. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th, alt. Fri, 8-5 EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, WALTER LINDSAY can be reached at (571) 272-1674. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAS A SANGHERA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852