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 .
This non-final office action is responsive to Applicants' application filed on 06/13/24. Claims 1-6 are presented for examination and are pending for the reasons indicated herein below.
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 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.
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 of this title, 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 1-6 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fletcher et al. (WO 2021119734 A1 NPL and hereinafter as Flet) in view of ABEYASEKERA et al. (US 20180112647 A1 and hereinafter as Abey)
Regarding claim 1. Flet teaches an electric power conversion device [fig 5] comprising: a converter circuit [converter in 510] that converts direct current power to alternating current power;
a circuit breaker [560] one end of which is connectable to an external system [system outside of converter] and another end of which is connected to the converter circuit; and an injector [570] that, before injecting the circuit breaker during activation, sets the converter circuit to an operating state [i.e. state intended to be synchronized with the grid], determines whether a voltage at the one end and a voltage at the other end meet a synchronization condition [function of 570 is driven by detective voltages at VCP/VGD], and injects the circuit breaker when the synchronization condition is met [¶104].
However, does not explicitly mention a filter circuit between the converter and one end of the external system. Whereas Abey teaches a circuit [figure 2] comprising: a filter circuit [filter between 225A and 210] between the converter [225A] and the external system [21]. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the features of Abey in order to provide a stable voltage and current waveform, so the inverter doesn’t inadvertently introduce unwanted noise into the power grid.
Regarding claim 2. Flet as modified teaches the electric power conversion device according to claim 1, wherein the converter circuit is subjected to voltage-controlled converter control, and droop control is used as the voltage-controlled converter control [paragraph 71 Flet].
Regarding claim 3. Flet as modified teaches the electric power conversion device according to claim 1, wherein the conversion circuit is subject to voltage-controlled converter control, and VSG control is used as the voltage-controlled converter control [function of controllers shown in figure 5].
Regarding claim 4. Flet as modified teaches the electric power conversion device according to claim 1, wherein an acceleration/deceleration signal output by the injector is used for controlling a frequency [frequency output by inverter] of an output voltage [paragraph 72 to 73, frequency control is implied by controller synchronizing output frequency of inverter with the frequency of the power grid] of the converter circuit via the filter circuit and a frequency of a voltage [i.e. voltage and frequency of the grid] of the external system to match with each other.
Regarding claim 5. Flet teaches a control method [abstract] for an electric power conversion device [figure 5] that includes a converter circuit [converter in 510] for converting direct current power to alternating current power,
and a circuit breaker [560] one end of which is connectable to an external system [system outside] and another end of which is connected to the converter circuit, the method comprising:
setting [function of 570] the converter circuit to an operating state [i.e. state intended to be synchronized with the grid] before injecting the circuit breaker during activation; detecting a voltage at the one end and a voltage at the other end; determining whether the voltage at the one end and the voltage at the other end meet a synchronization condition [function of 570 is driven by detective voltages at VCP/VGD]; and injecting the circuit breaker when the synchronization condition is met in the determining [paragraphs 103-105].
However, does not explicitly mention a filter circuit between the converter and one end of the external system. Whereas Abey teaches a circuit [figure 2] comprising: a filter circuit [filter between 225A and 210] between the converter [225A] and the external system [21]. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the features of Abey in order to provide a stable voltage and current waveform, so the inverter doesn’t inadvertently introduce unwanted noise into the power grid.
Regarding claim 6. Flet as modified teaches the control method for the electric power conversion device according to claim 5, wherein the determining includes determining that the synchronization condition is met [paragraphs 105 to 108], when each of differences between amplitudes [voltage amplitudes], frequencies, and phases of the voltage [detected values are used to generate angular, as implied in paragraphs 105 to 106] at the one end and the voltage at the other end is equal [equivalent values] to or less than a threshold.
Examiner Note
The examiner cites particular columns and lines numbers in the references as applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, the applicant 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Bryan Perez whose telephone number is (571)272-8837. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon.-Fri. (7:30 – 5:00).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Crystal Hammond, can be reached on (571) 270-1682. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRYAN R PEREZ/Examiner, Art Unit 2838