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 .
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) 1-6, 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Miyazaki et al. (US 2018/0149694 A1 hereinafter Miyazaki), in view of Wendt et al. (US 7,724,046 B2 hereinafter Wendt).
As to claim 1, Miyazaki discloses in Fig. 2, an electronic device (failure diagnosis circuit 100 as shown in Fig. 2) comprising:
a load (load connected to protection transistor Tr1 as shown in Fig. 2);
a switching element provided in a current path connected to the load (switching transistor Tr2 as shown in Fig. 2) (current path from power source to Tr1/load as shown in Fig. 2);
a failure diagnosis unit that performs failure diagnosis according to a voltage applied to the load (diagnosis unit 106 as shown in Fig. 2) (voltage at DIN applied via the path to Tr1/load as shown in Fig. 2); and
a driving circuit that drives the switching element (power supply control unit 104 as shown in Fig. 2) (drives Tr2 as shown in Fig. 2); wherein
the driving circuit outputs, to the switching element, a driving control signal (DOUT as shown in Fig. 2); and
if the failure diagnosis unit detects a voltage outside a normal voltage range (no voltage fall as shown in Fig. 5), the failure diagnosis unit decides that the load is in an abnormal state (open failure as shown in Fig. 5).
Miyazaki does not disclose a plurality of loads ; the driving control signal that represents a result of comparison between a load signal resulting from converting a current flowing in the current path to a voltage and a reference signal used as a reference for an operation of the switching element ;
However, Wendt discloses in Figs. 4, 16-17, a plurality of loads (multiple inductive loads as shown in Fig. 3); the driving control signal that represents a result of comparison between a load signal resulting from converting a current flowing in the current path to a voltage (V_sense from sense resistor as shown in Fig. 16) and a reference signal used as a reference for an operation of the switching element (V_ref as shown in Fig. 16) (control logic output as shown in Fig. 17);
Therefore, It 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, to modify the system of Miyazaki and provides a plurality of loads (multiple inductive loads as shown in Fig. 3); the driving control signal that represents a result of comparison between a load signal resulting from converting a current flowing in the current path to a voltage (V_sense from sense resistor as shown in Fig. 16) and a reference signal used as a reference for an operation of the switching element (V_ref as shown in Fig. 16) (control logic output as shown in Fig. 17), as taught by Wendt for improving reliability and fault isolation in complex systems.
As to claim 2, Miyazaki discloses the failure diagnosis unit decides whether the load is in the abnormal state or a normal state (normal voltage fall as shown in Fig. 4); and
the abnormal state is an open failure state of the load, a short failure state of the load, or another abnormal state of the load (open-circuit failure as shown in Fig. 5).
As to claim 3, Miyazaki discloses an input voltage to the failure diagnosis unit is such that a normal voltage of the load in the normal state is higher than an open voltage of the load in a case of an open failure and that a short voltage of the load in a case of a short failure is higher than the normal voltage (normal fall vs. no fall as shown in Figs. 4-5) (implied hierarchy for short as shown in para [0085]).
As to claim 4, Miyazaki discloses the failure diagnosis unit performs the failure diagnosis according to a voltage of the current path between the plurality of loads and the switching element (voltage at DIN between Tr2 and Tr1 as shown in Fig. 2).
As to claim 5, the combination of Miyazaki and Wendt discloses a plurality of resistors, each of which is connected in series with a load, which is one of the plurality of loads (sense resistors per channel as shown in Wendt Fig. 16); and
a plurality of amplifiers, each of which amplifies a voltage across both terminals of the resistor (comparator/amplifiers for V_sense as shown in Wendt Fig. 16); wherein
each resistor has a first terminal connected to the load and also has a second terminal connected to the switching element (terminals to load/switch as shown in Wendt Fig. 4),
a non-inverting input terminal of an amplifier, which is one of the plurality of amplifiers, is connected to the first terminal of the resistor, and an inverting input terminal of the amplifier is connected to the second terminal of the resistor (differential inputs as shown in Wendt Fig. 16), and
the failure diagnosis unit performs the failure diagnosis according to an output voltage from the amplifier (comparator output as shown in Wendt Fig. 17).
As to claim 6, Miyazaki discloses when the failure diagnosis unit performs the failure diagnosis, the failure diagnosis unit sets a voltage of the reference signal so that a predetermined voltage lower than an operating voltage on which the load operates is applied to the plurality of loads (low after off as shown in Figs. 4-5).
As to claim 7, Miyazaki discloses in Fig. 2, an electronic device (failure diagnosis circuit 100 as shown in Fig. 2) comprising:
a load (load connected to protection transistor Tr1 as shown in Fig. 2);
a switching element provided in a current path connected to the load (switching transistor Tr2 as shown in Fig. 2) (current path from power source to Tr1/load as shown in Fig. 2);
a failure diagnosis unit that performs failure diagnosis according to a voltage applied to the load (diagnosis unit 106 as shown in Fig. 2) (voltage at DIN applied via the path to Tr1/load as shown in Fig. 2); and
a driving circuit that drives the switching element (power supply control unit 104 as shown in Fig. 2) (drives Tr2 as shown in Fig. 2); wherein
the driving circuit outputs, to the switching element, a driving control signal (DOUT as shown in Fig. 2); and
if the failure diagnosis unit detects a voltage outside a normal voltage range, the failure diagnosis unit decides that the load is in an abnormal state (no voltage fall as shown in Fig. 5) (open failure as shown in Fig. 5).
Miyazaki does not disclose the driving control signal that represents a result of comparison between a load signal resulting from converting a current flowing in the current path to a voltage and a reference signal used as a reference for an operation of the switching element ;
However, Wendt discloses in Figs. 4, 16-17, the driving control signal that represents a result of comparison between a load signal resulting from converting a current flowing in the current path to a voltage and a reference signal used as a reference for an operation of the switching element (control logic output as shown in Fig. 17) (V_sense from sense resistor as shown in Fig. 16) (V_ref as shown in Fig. 16);
Therefore, It 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, to modify the system of Miyazaki and provides the driving control signal that represents a result of comparison between a load signal resulting from converting a current flowing in the current path to a voltage and a reference signal used as a reference for an operation of the switching element (control logic output as shown in Fig. 17) (V_sense from sense resistor as shown in Fig. 16) (V_ref as shown in Fig. 16), as taught by Wendt for improving reliability and fault isolation in complex systems.
Conclusion
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/TUNG X NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2858 1/10/2026