DETAILED ACTION
This Office action is in response to the application filed on 11 July 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 .
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
In paragraph [0061], “Transformers and inductors in the resonant converter
are typically designed for low flux density to keep the core losses low as they use all four quadrants of the BH curve.” provides an informality about BH curve because there is no comment for BH earlier.
In paragraph [0076], “following a prede- termined under-voltage protection (UVP) threshold profile in order to” provides the informality.
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.
Claims 1, 12, 36 and 37 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liang lian et. al (US2021/0226543A1; hereafter “Liang”) in view of Chia-Min Chen et. al ( 2010 53rd IEEE International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems; hereafter “Chen”).
-Regarding claim 1:
Liang discloses:
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A control circuit (Fig. 2; control circuit 204) for a power converter (Fig. 11; 1100), the power converter comprising: a primary circuit (Fig. 11; 1102) for receiving a supply power(Fig. 11; +IN and -IN), the primary circuit having a primary connection (Fig. 11; primary winding in a transformer-red circle); a secondary circuit (Fig. 11; 1104) for providing a load power to a load (Fig. 11; +OUTPUT, -OUTPUT), the secondary circuit having a secondary connection (Fig. 11; secondary winding in a transformer-red circle) connected to the primary connection; voltage sensing circuit for detecting a voltage sense signal derived from an output voltage (Fig. 2: 216, 222, and 224, voltage sensing is explained in paragraph 0039, ……the control circuit senses the output voltage Vout of the power circuit via one or more suitable sensors.); the control circuit (Fig. 2: Control circuit 204) comprising a controller (Fig. 2; PWM controller and PID voltage controller) for controlling one or more switches (Fig. 11; Switches Q1-Q4, which are controlled by driver from PWM controller) in the primary circuit to control the output current and/or the output voltage (Fig. 11; Vout) in accordance with one or more control profiles and based on the current sense signal and/or the voltage sense signal (Fig. 2; in paragraph 0039, ……the control circuit senses the output voltage Vout of the power circuit via one or more suitable sensors.).
Chen discloses:
current sensing circuit (Fig. 8; current sensing circuit) for detecting a current sense signal (Fig. 8; Isense) derived from an output current (Fig. 8; IL);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the device described in Liang such that a commonly used current sensing circuit for a high efficiency current mode DC-DC step down converter described in Chen is applied to the regulated switched mode power supplies having adjustable output voltages. Doing so allows for increasing the output currents without additional components or cost by a resonant circuit, which includes primary and secondary connections in the power converter.
-Regarding claim 12;
Liang discloses:
A control circuit according to claims 1 wherein one of the control profiles is a fault recovery current profile (Fig. 2; 216, error signal generator).
-Regarding claim 36;
Liang discloses:
A power converter having a control circuit (Fig. 2; 204) according to claim 1.
-Regarding claim 37;
For method claim 37, note that under MPEP 2112.02, the principles of inherency, if a prior art device, in its normal and usual operation, would necessarily perform the method claimed, then the method claimed will be considered to be anticipated by the prior art device. When the prior art is the same as a device described in the specification for carrying out the claimed method, it can be assumed the device “1 inherently performs the claimed process. In re King, 801 F.2d 1324, 231 UPSQ 136 (Fed Cir. 1986). Therefore, the previous rejections based on the apparatus will not be repeated.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-11, 13-16, 34, 35 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
-with respect to claim 2:
the prior arts in Liang, and Chen disclose the claimed invention in basic claims but do not further disclose about a startup current profile.
-with respect to claim 8:
the prior arts in Liang, and Chen disclose the claimed invention in basic claims but do not further disclose about an under-voltage protection threshold profile.
-with respect to claim 13:
the prior arts in Liang, and Chen disclose the claimed invention in basic claims but do not further disclose about a target output current having a maximum recovery value and a final recovery value lower than the maximum recovery value.
-with respect to claim 34:
the prior arts in Liang, and Chen disclose the claimed invention in basic claims but do not further disclose that the controller utilizes the fault recovery current profile after the controller detects a fault or has shut down the power converter when the voltage sense signal is less than a threshold load voltage.
-with respect to claim 35:
the prior arts in Liang, and Chen disclose the claimed invention in basic claims but do not further disclose about a passive power factor correction circuit.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SEUNG HO CHOI whose telephone number is (571)272-8188. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday, 7:30 AM - 5:30 PM ET.
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/SEUNG HO CHOI/Examiner, Art Unit 2838
/CRYSTAL L HAMMOND/Supervisory Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838