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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-19 are currently pending.
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.
Claims 1-14 & 16-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Koga (US 2023/0066546 A1) in view of Yersak (US 2020/0127282 A1).
Regarding claims 1-3, Koga teaches a battery comprising: a plurality of unit electrode bodies (220+300+120) (fig. 9A; [0176]); each unit electrode body comprising a positive electrode that includes a molded body of a positive electrode mixture that contains a positive electrode active material; a negative electrode that includes a negative electrode active material layer that contains a negative electrode active material; and a solid electrolyte/separator layer that is interposed between the positive electrode and the negative electrode, the plurality of unit electrode bodies being stacked on top of each other (fig. 9A; [0076]-[0089] & [0182]-[0187]), wherein adjacent ones of the unit electrode bodies are connected with each other in series (fig. 9A; [0176]); L/S where L is from 0.018 cm to 0.026 cm (i.e 180-260 microns calculated from the thickness of the positive electrode mixture, negative electrode mixture and solid electrolyte layer in [0184]-[0185]) and S is 150 cm2 ([0092]) such that the ratio L/S ranges from 0.00012 to 0.00017; and such that x*L/S ≤ 1 (where x = 2) and L/S ≤ 0.3. Koga is silent as to the molded body of the positive electrode mixture and the negative electrode active material each having a porosity of 10% or less, and when the solid electrolyte layer is included, the solid electrolyte layer having a porosity of 10% or less. Yersak teaches a solid-state battery comprising a positive electrode mixture layer and a negative electrode mixture layer each having a porosity of 0 vol% to 10 vol%, and a solid electrolyte layer having a porosity of 0 vol% to 40 vol% with certain aspects using 5 vol% to 20 vol% ([0020], [0055] & [0070]-[0072]) which overlaps with presently claimed range. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of present invention, to use porosity of 0 vol% to 10 vol% for each of the molded body of the positive electrode mixture and the negative electrode active material in view of improving the interface between the solid state electrolyte and the active material in each electrode and reduce unnecessary loading of the solid electrolyte which would translate to lower energy densities as taught by Yersak ([0072]). Moreover, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of present invention, to use porosity of 5 vol% to 20 vol% for the solid electrolyte layer as a suitable range ([0055]).
Regarding claim 4, Koga as modified by Yersak teaches the battery of claim 1. Koga further teaches the thickness of the positive electrode and negative electrode each ranging from 5 microns to 300 microns with the thickness of the solid electrolyte layer ranging from 5 microns to 150 microns ([0079], [0082] & [0088]) such that L ranges from 15 microns to 750 microns, or equivalently 0.0015 cm to 0.075 cm, which overlaps with the presently claimed range of 0.05 to 0.20.
Regarding claim 5, Koga as modified by Yersak teaches the battery of claim 1 but is silent as to S being 20 or less. However, “the Federal Circuit held that, where the only difference between the prior art and the claims was a recitation of relative dimensions of the claimed device and a device having the claimed relative dimensions would not perform differently than the prior art device, the claimed device was not patentably distinct from the prior art device”. See MPEP 2144.04 IV(A).
Regarding claim 6, Koga as modified by Yersak teaches the battery of claim 1. Yersak further teaches wherein a content of the positive electrode active material in the positive electrode mixture is 60% to 85% by mass with a specific embodiment using 60% by mass ([0060] & [0073]).
Regarding claim 7, Koga as modified by Yersak teaches the battery of claim 1. Yersak further teaches a content of the solid electrolyte in the positive electrode mixture is 10 to 65 parts by mass and a content of the conductive assistant in the positive electrode mixture is 1.0 to 6.5 parts by mass with respect to 100 parts by mass of the positive electrode active material in the positive electrode mixture ([0060], [0068] & [0073]).
Regarding claim 8, Koga as modified by Yersak teaches the battery of claim 1. Koga and Yersak each independently teach the positive electrode mixture containing a sulfide-based solid electrolyte as the solid electrolyte (Yersak: [0061]; and Koga: [0078]).
Regarding claim 9, Koga as modified by Yersak teaches the battery of claim 1. Yersak further teaches the positive electrode mixture not containing a binder (i.e when the content of the binder is 0 wt% as disclosed in [0068]).
Regarding claim 10, Koga as modified by Yersak teaches the battery of claim 1. Yersak further teaches wherein a content of the negative electrode active material in the negative electrode mixture is 40% to 80% by mass with a specific embodiment using 40% by mass ([0063] & [0073]).
Regarding claim 11, Koga as modified by Yersak teaches the battery of claim 1. Yersak further teaches a content of the solid electrolyte in the negative electrode mixture is 30 to 130 parts by mass with respect to 100 parts by mass of the negative electrode active material in the negative electrode mixture ([0063]). It is noted that when the content of the negative electrode active material is from about 43% by mass to about 77% by mass (i.e within the ranges disclosed in Yersak), the resulting content of the solid electrolyte would be 30 to 130 parts by mass with respect to 100 parts by mass of the negative electrode active material.
Regarding claim 12, Koga as modified by Yersak teaches the battery of claim 1. Koga and Yersak each independently teach the negative electrode mixture containing a sulfide-based solid electrolyte as the solid electrolyte (Yersak: [0064]; and Koga: [0081]).
Regarding claim 13, Koga as modified by Yersak teaches the battery of claim 1. Yersak further teaches the negative electrode mixture not containing a binder (i.e when the content of the binder is 0 wt% as disclosed in [0068]).
Regarding claim 14, Koga as modified by Yersak teaches the battery of claim 1. Koga further teaches wherein each unit electrode body comprises the solid electrolyte layer between the positive electrode and the negative electrode, and the solid electrolyte layer contains a sulfide-based solid electrolyte (fig. 9A; [0086]).
Regarding claim 16, Koga as modified by Yersak teaches the battery of claim 1. Koga further teaches each unit electrode body comprising the solid electrolyte layer having a thickness of 10 microns to 200 microns between the positive electrode and the negative electrode ([0088] & [0185]).
Regarding claim 17, Koga as modified by Yersak teaches the battery of claim 1. Koga further teaches a current collector (210+110) placed between adjacent ones of the unit electrode bodies, and the current collector connecting adjacent unit electrode bodies with each other in series (fig. 9A; [0176]).
Claims 15 & 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Koga (US 2023/0066546 A1) and Yersak (US 2020/0127282 A1), as applied to claims 1-14 & 16-17 above, and further in view of Takahashi (US 2022/0131183 A1).
Regarding claims 15 & 18-19, Koga as modified by Yersak teaches the batteries of claims 8, 12 and 14, respectively, but is silent as to the sulfide-based solid electrolyte having an argyrodite crystal structure represented by formula (1) or (2). Takahashi teaches a solid-state battery comprising a sulfide-based solid electrolyte having an argyrodite crystal structure represented by formula (1) ([0032]-[0043] & [0047]-[0049]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of present invention, to use an argyrodite crystal structure for the sulfide solid electrolyte in the electrodes and the solid electrolyte layer of modified Koga in view of improving the ionic conductivity as taught by Takahashi ([0032]).
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NATHANAEL T ZEMUI whose telephone number is (571)272-4894. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm (EST).
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/NATHANAEL T ZEMUI/Examiner, Art Unit 1727
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