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 statements (IDS) submitted on 2/13/24 and 10/10/25 have been considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because Fig. 4 shows the addition of +eod at 43 and -eod at 44. However, the sum +eod – eod is always 0 and produces no net result, making it unclear what Applicant is attempting to show. Likewise, Fig. 4 depicts eoq added at 47 and subtracted at 48, which produces no change and is nonsensical, making it unclear what Applicant is attempting to illustrate. Fig. 5 shows the arrow for io going into the plant from Zps, but the Plant 14 produces io and the arrow should be shown going into block 63. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
A title such as the following is suggested: Power conversion device with active and reactive voltage controllers.
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.
Claim(s) 1 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Kikuchi (US 2016/0336874).
With respect to claim 1, Kikuchi discloses a power conversion device (Fig. 1 1,3,20,30) that converts input power (Fig. 2 power from 15) into single-phase or three-phase AC power (Fig. 1 3 phase AC output to 2) and outputs the converted power, the power conversion device comprising: an active and reactive output current calculator (Fig. 8 94) configured to calculate an active output current value (Fig. 8 id) and a reactive output current value (Fig. 8 iq) based on an output current value (Fig. 8 iu,iv,iw) detected by a current detector (Fig. 1 30); an active and reactive output voltage value calculator (Fig. 8 92) configured to calculate an active output voltage value (Fig. 8 vd) and a reactive output voltage value (Fig. 8 vq) based on an output voltage value (Fig. 8 vu,vv,vw) detected by a voltage detector (Fig. 1 20); a reactive output voltage controller (Fig. 8 93; Fig. 12 201-208,) configured to adjust a reactive output voltage target value (Fig. 8 vq*) based on (Fig. 12 vqref based on Δid through path to 207) an active output current target value (Fig. 8 iq*), the active output current value (Fig. 8 iq), and the reactive output voltage value (Fig. 8 vq); and an active output voltage controller (Fig. 8 90; Fig. 12 vdref based on Δiq through path to 207) configured to adjust an active output voltage target value (Fig. 8 vd*) based on a reactive output current target value (Fig. 8 id*), the reactive output current value (Fig 8 id), and the active output voltage value (Fig. 8 vd).
With respect to claim 5, Kikuchi discloses the power conversion device according to claim 1, further comprising: a current rotational coordinate transformer (Fig. 8 94) configured to perform rotational coordinate transformation on the output current value to calculate the active output current value and the reactive output current value; and a voltage rotational coordinate transformer (Fig 8 92) configured to perform rotational coordinate transformation on the output voltage value to calculate the active output voltage value and the reactive output voltage value.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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) 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kikuchi (US 2016/0336874) in view of Liu (CN 104242717).
With respect to claim 4, Kikuchi discloses the power conversion device according to claim 1 as set forth above, and remains silent as to implementing an output impedance controller. It was known at the time of filing of the invention to implement an output impedance controller.
Liu discloses an output impedance controller (generates in Ud3,Uq3 in Figure 1) configured to control an output impedance when the power is output (step 8). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing of the invention to implement an output impedance controller configured to control an output impedance when the power is output, in order to ensure stable operation and parallel equalization.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including 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:
With respect to claim 2, the prior art does not disclose or suggest, in combination with the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims, primarily, wherein at least one of the active output current target value and the reactive output current target value is changed between an interconnection operation in which the power conversion device is operated in connection with a commercial power system and a self-sustaining operation in which the power conversion device is operated in separation from the commercial power system.
With respect to claim 3, the prior art does not disclose or suggest, in combination with the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims, primarily, wherein at least one of the active output voltage target value and the reactive output voltage target value is changed between an interconnection operation in which the power conversion device is operated in connection with a commercial power system and a self-sustaining operation in which the power conversion device is operated in separation from the commercial power system.
The aforementioned limitations in combination with all remaining limitations of the respective claims are believed to render the aforementioned indicated claim and any dependent claims thereof patentable over the art of record.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HARRY RAYMOND BEHM whose telephone number is (571)272-8929. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 8-5 EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thienvu Tran can be reached at 571-270-1276. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/HARRY R BEHM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838