DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to the application filed on 05/10/2024. Claims 1-6 are pending.
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 papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Drawing
The drawing submitted on 05/10/2024 is acknowledged and accepted by the examiner.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 05/13/2024 and 12/17/2024 have been considered by the examiner.
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.
Claims 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and/or (a)(2) as being anticipated by Daly (US Patent or PG Pub. No. 20160329807, hereinafter ‘807).
Claim 1, ‘807 teaches a power supply control circuit (e.g., see Abstract, [0016][0031][0039], Fig. 1-4) comprising:
a soft start generation circuit (e.g., the circuits comprising 132, 140, 142, 144, 146, 148, 152) that outputs a soft start voltage (e.g., VSOFT_START) which gradually increases with time (e.g., see Fig. 3A); an error signal generation circuit (e.g., the circuits comprising 108) that generates an error signal (e.g., the output of 118) corresponding to a difference between a feedback voltage corresponding to an output voltage (e.g., Vout) in a switch output stage (e.g., the switch output stage of the DC/DC converter 102 is implicitly taught, see Abstract) and the soft start voltage (e.g., see Abstract, Fig. 1-4); an output control circuit (e.g., the control circuit of the switch output stage of the DC/DC converter 102) that controls the switch output stage according to the error signal (e.g., see Abstract, Fig. 1-4); and
a soft start control circuit (e.g., 150) that controls the soft start voltage according to the feedback voltage (e.g., see Abstract, [0016][0031][0039], Fig. 3A,3B).
Claim 2, ‘807 teaches the limitations of claim 1 as discussed above. It further teaches that wherein the error signal generation circuit generates the error signal according to a difference between a lower one of a predetermined reference voltage (e.g., Vreg, VTH, and/or Vout+VTH,) and the soft start voltage and the feedback voltage (e.g., see Abstract, [0016][0031][0039], Fig. 3A,3B, 4).
Claim 3, ‘807 teaches the limitations of claim 2 as discussed above. It further teaches that wherein the soft start generation circuit includes a capacitor (e.g., 132) that outputs the soft start voltage corresponding to an amount of charge, and the soft start control circuit includes a charge/discharge control circuit that charges and discharges the capacitor according to the difference between the lower one of the reference voltage and the soft start voltage and the feedback voltage (e.g., see Abstract, [0016][0031][0039], Fig. 3A,3B).
Claim 4, ‘807 teaches the limitations of claim 3 as discussed above. It further teaches that, wherein the charge/discharge control circuit charges and discharges the capacitor in a state where the soft start voltage is lower than the reference voltage such that the feedback voltage matches the soft start voltage (e.g., see Abstract, [0016][0031][0039], Fig. 3A,3B, 4), and charges and discharges the capacitor in a state where the soft start voltage is higher than the reference voltage such that the feedback voltage matches the reference voltage (e.g., see Abstract, [0016][0031][0039], Fig. 3A,3B, 4).
Claim 5, ‘807 teaches the limitations of claim 1 as discussed above. It further teaches that wherein the output control circuit controls an on-duty cycle of the switch output stage according to the error signal (e.g., the switching cycle of the output switching circuits during the output voltage regulation state., see Abstract, [0016][0031][0039], Fig. 1-4).
Claim 6, ‘807 teaches the limitations of claim 1 as discussed above. It further teaches that the power supply control circuit according to claim 1; and the switch output stage, wherein the power supply device generates the output voltage from an input voltage (e.g., Vin, see Abstract, [0016][0031][0039], Fig. 1-4).
Examiner's Note:
Examiner has cited particular columns and line numbers in the references applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in their entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
In the case of amending the claimed invention, Applicant is respectfully requested to indicate the portion(s) of the specification which dictate(s) the structure relied on for proper interpretation and also to verify and ascertain the metes and bounds of the claimed invention.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUE ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1263. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F: 8:30AM-5:00PM
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Monica Lewis can be reached on 571-272-2838. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JUE ZHANG/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838