DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to the Application filed on 06/03/2024.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 06/03/2024 and 10/28/2025 is/are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement(s) is/are being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(d):
(d) REFERENCE IN DEPENDENT FORMS.—Subject to subsection (e), a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, fourth paragraph:
Subject to the following paragraph [i.e., the fifth paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112], a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(d) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, 4th paragraph, as being of improper dependent form for failing to further limit the subject matter of the claim upon which it depends, or for failing to include all the limitations of the claim upon which it depends.
Claim 11 recites “A switching power supply apparatus comprising: the switching control unit according to any one of claims 1 to 10;claim 1; the pair of input terminals; the pair of output terminals; the transformer; the inverter circuit; and the rectifying and smoothing circuit”. It is submitted that claim 11 does not further limits claim 1.
Applicant may cancel the claim(s), amend the claim(s) to place the claim(s) in proper dependent form, rewrite the claim(s) in independent form, or present a sufficient showing that the dependent claim(s) complies with the statutory requirements.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1 – 10 and 12 are allowed.
The following is an examiner's statement of reasons for allowance:
The primary reason for the indication of the allowability of claim 1 is the inclusion therein, in combination as currently claimed as a whole, of the limitation of “based on a result of detection of a current flowing to pass through a capacitive component between a gate and a drain of a first switching device as one of the switching devices that is in an OFF state, the control circuit is configured to perform timing setting of a switching timing for the first switching device from the OFF state to an ON state, the switching timing being to come after a shift to a delay time occurring upon switching of a second switching device as another one of the switching devices from an ON state to an OFF state”.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US Pub. No. 2023/0013041 discloses a gate drive circuit including: a voltage detector that detects a voltage between a first terminal and a second terminal of a switching device; a delay circuit that outputs, with a delay for a predetermined time, a detected value of the voltage obtained from the voltage detector; and a first off-mode drive circuit and a second off-mode drive circuit that apply a control signal to a control terminal of the switching device for turning off the switching device, wherein the first off-mode drive circuit turns off the switching device faster than the second off-mode drive circuit, and stops its operation to turns off the switching device when the delayed voltage value output from the delay circuit exceeds a predetermined threshold value.
US Patent No. 11,201,549 discloses an isolated DC-DC converter with a controller comprising delay modules activated during trailing edges of a pulse width modulation signals, and output the pulse width modulation signal after a delay of a preset time length.
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/ALEX TORRES-RIVERA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838