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 statement (IDS) submitted on 6/5/24, and 5/28/25 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because the claim is drawn to a program running on a computer readable storage medium that is transitory, or not disclosed as being non-transitory. A claim directed toward a computer storage medium encoded with a computer program is non-statutory, where the computer storage medium could be a data structure or a signal which are non-statutory.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 7 recites the limitation "the second sampling window time period", and “the third sampling time period” in line 20. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
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) 1-2, 6, and 9-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Aoki (US 2019/0131904) in view of Akin et al. (US 2020/0400738).
Regarding claim 1,
Aoki discloses (Fig. 1):
A single-resistor measurement method for a motor control system (fig. 1, all elements), the motor control system comprising a three-phase inverter bridge (20) and a single sampling resistor (23) corresponding to a
negative pole of a direct-current bus (¶0072), the three-phase inverter bridge (20) being configured to drive a
motor (10) to operate (¶0073), the method comprising:
obtaining a direct-current bus current flowing through the single sampling resistor (Ip, ¶0091, via 43, ¶0102), and
determining, based on the direct-current bus current, a switch-on current when a lower tube of at least one phase bridge arm in the three-phase inverter bridge is switched on (Fig. 2, detects phase currents when voltage vectors V1-V6 have current running through Dc bus, ¶0093);
obtaining an on-tube voltage drop when the lower tube of the at least one phase bridge arm in the three-phase inverter bridge is switched on (detects currents based on voltage drop across switch, ¶0105);
and
determining, based on the direct-current bus current (idc), a three-phase current outside a current measurement dead zone (via shunt detector, ¶0130); determining, based on the on-tube voltage drop and the switch-on resistance (¶0417), a three-phase current inside the current measurement dead zone (0th voltage, vector, ¶0117); and determining, based on the three-phase current outside the current measurement dead zone and the three-phase current inside the current measurement dead zone, a three-phase feedback current of the motor (¶0439-¶0440).
They do not disclose:
determining, based on the switch-on current and the on-tube voltage drop when the lower
tube of the at least one phase bridge arm in the three-phase inverter bridge is switched on, a switch-on resistance when the lower tube of the at least one phase bridge arm in the three-phase inverter bridge is switched on;
However, Akin teaches:
determining, based on the switch-on current and the on-tube voltage drop when the lower tube of the at least one phase bridge arm in the three-phase inverter bridge is switched on, a switch-on resistance (Rds-sat) when the lower tube of the at least one phase bridge arm in the three-phase inverter bridge is switched on (¶0052);
Regarding claim 1, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to take the motor driving device from Aoki that measures the current and voltages in order to determine corrected phase currents to drive a motor (¶0117) based on an on-time resistance (¶0417) and utilize the on time resistance calculation method to measure the on time resistance in order to more accurately detect voltages as taught by Akin (¶0052). This would improve the reliability of the system.
Regarding claim 2,
Aoki discloses (Fig. 1):
further comprising:
obtaining an off-tube voltage drop when the lower tube of the at least one phase bridge arm in the three-phase inverter bridge is switched off (V0 vector, ¶0096); and
determining, based on the off-tube voltage drop, a three-phase output line voltage of the motor and a direct-current bus voltage of the motor (Idc, ¶0096, ¶0100).
Regarding claim 6,
Aoki discloses (Fig. 1):
further comprising, prior to said obtaining the off-tube voltage drop:
determining, based on a time sequence of switching tubes to be switched on in the three-phase inverter bridge, a fourth sampling window time period, wherein the fourth sampling window time period is a time period starting from a time point of overflow interrupt of a PWM triangular waveform until an upper tube of any phase bridge arm in the three-phase inverter bridge is switched off (Fig. 6, td, V0 voltage vector measurement period, ¶0117).
Regarding claim 9,
Aoki discloses (Fig. 1):
A motor controller comprising:
a memory (Fig. 1, 46);
one or more processors (Fig. 1, 30, ¶0073); and
a single-resistor measurement program for a motor control system stored on the memory
and executable by the one or more processors, wherein the one or more processors are configured to, when running the single-resistor measurement program, implement the single-resistor measurement method for the motor control system according to claim 1 (fig. 1, ¶0074).
Regarding claim 10,
Aoki discloses (Fig. 1):
A computer readable storage medium, having a single-resistor measurement program for a motor control system stored thereon (Fig. 1, 46), the single-resistor measurement program for the motor control system being configured to, when executed by one or more processors, implement the single-resistor measurement method for the motor control system according to claim 1 (fig. 1, ¶0074).
Regarding claim 11,
Aoki discloses (Fig. 1):
A motor control system (Fig. 1) comprising:
a motor (10);
a three-phase inverter bridge (20) connected between direct-current buses(Lp, Ln, ¶0070) and configured to drive the motor to operate (¶0073);
a current measurement unit (43) comprising a single sampling resistor (23), the single sampling resistor corresponding to a negative pole of the direct-current bus (Ln) and configured to measure a direct-current bus current (IDC, ¶0101);
a first voltage measurement unit (40un) corresponding to a lower tube of a U-phase bridge arm in the three-phase inverter bridge (20) and configured to measure a lower tube voltage drop of the U-phase bridge arm (detects currents based on voltage drop across switch, ¶0105);
a second voltage measurement unit (40vn) corresponding to a lower tube of a V-phase bridge arm in the three-phase inverter bridge and configured to measure a lower tube voltage drop of the V-phase bridge arm (detects currents based on voltage drop across switch, ¶0105);
a third voltage measurement unit (40wn) corresponding to a lower tube of a W-phase bridge arm in the three-phase inverter bridge and configured to measure a lower tube voltage drop of the W-phase bridge arm (detects currents based on voltage drop across switch, ¶0105);
a control unit (30) configured to:
determine, based on the direct-current bus current (Idc), a switch-on current when a lower tube of at least one phase bridge arm in the three-phase inverter bridge is switched on (Irmu, Irmv, Irmw, ¶0117),
obtain an on-tube voltage drop when the lower tube of the at least one phase bridge arm in the three-phase inverter bridge is switched on (40un, 40vn, 40wn, ¶0106),
determine, based on the direct-current bus current (IDC), a three-phase current outside a current
measurement dead zone (via shunt detector, ¶0130), and
determine, based on the on-tube voltage drop and the switch-on resistance, a three-phase current inside the current measurement dead zone (0th voltage, vector, ¶0117),
wherein the control unit is further configured to determine, based on the three-phase current
outside the current measurement dead zone and the three-phase current inside the current measurement dead zone, a three-phase feedback current of the motor (¶0439-¶0440).
They do not disclose:
determine, based on the switch-on current and the on-tube voltage drop when the lower tube of the at least one phase bridge arm in the three-phase inverter bridge is switched on, a switch-on resistance when the lower tube of the at least one phase bridge arm in the three-phase
inverter bridge is switched on
However, Akin teaches:
determine, based on the switch-on current and the on-tube voltage drop when the lower tube of the at least one phase bridge arm in the three-phase inverter bridge is switched on, a switch-on resistance (Rds-sat) when the lower tube of the at least one phase bridge arm in the three-phase inverter bridge is switched on (¶0052);
Regarding claim 11, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to take the motor driving device from Aoki that measures the current and voltages in order to determine corrected phase currents to drive a motor (¶0117) based on an on-time resistance (¶0417) and utilize the on time resistance calculation method to measure the on time resistance in order to more accurately detect voltages as taught by Akin (¶0052). This would improve the reliability of the system.
Regarding claim 12,
Aoki discloses (Fig. 1):
wherein the control unit is further configured to:
obtain an off-tube voltage drop when the lower tube of the at least one phase bridge arm in the three-phase inverter bridge is switched off (V0 vector, ¶0096); and
determine, based on the off-tube voltage drop, a three-phase output line voltage of the motor and a direct-current bus voltage of the motor (Idc, ¶0096, ¶0100).
Claim(s) 8 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Aoki (US 2019/0131904) and Akin et al. (US 2020/0400738) as applied to claims 1 and 12, and in further view of Kojima (US 2021/0194401).
Regarding claim 8,
Aoki discloses (Fig. 1):
A motor control method comprising:
obtaining the three-phase feedback current of the motor and a three-phase output line voltage of the motor by performing the single-resistor measurement method for the motor control system according to claim 1 (fig. 1);
They do not disclose:
obtaining a direct-current current and a quadrature-axis current by performing a coordinate transformation on the three-phase feedback current, and obtaining a direct-axis voltage and a quadrature-axis voltage by performing a coordinate transformation on the three-phase output line
voltage;
obtaining a rotor angle and a rotor speed of the motor by performing a magnetic flux linkage and speed observation based on the direct-current current, the quadrature-axis current, the
direct-axis voltage, and the quadrature-axis voltage; and
performing vector control of the motor based on the direct-current current, the quadrature-axis current, the rotor angle, and the rotor speed.
However, Kojima teaches (fig. 2):
obtaining a direct-current current and a quadrature-axis current (Fig. 2, isdq) by performing a coordinate transformation on the three-phase feedback current (via 301, 302, from 1su, isv, isw, ¶0037-¶0038), and obtaining a direct-axis voltage and a quadrature-axis voltage (Vsdq) by performing a coordinate transformation on the three-phase output line
voltage (vsu, vsv, vsw, ¶0039-¶0040);
obtaining a rotor angle (Fig. 1, from 4, θr) and a rotor speed (output from 3, ωr,) of the motor by performing a magnetic flux linkage and speed observation based on the direct-current current, the quadrature-axis current, the
direct-axis voltage, and the quadrature-axis voltage (¶0037-¶0040); and
performing vector control of the motor based on the direct-current current, the quadrature-axis current, the rotor angle, and the rotor speed (¶0073).
Regarding claim 8, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to take the motor driving device from Aoki that measures the current and voltages in order to determine corrected phase currents to drive a motor (¶0117) based on an on-time resistance (¶0417) and utilize the on time resistance calculation method to measure the on time resistance in order to more accurately detect voltages as taught by Akin (¶0052). This would improve the reliability of the system.
It would have been further obvious to take the current and voltage measurements and use them to calculate the rotor speed and position in order to control the motor as taught by Kojima (¶0073). This would decrease costs because extra sensors would not be needed to perform these functions of calculating speed and velocity for motor control.
Regarding claim 13,
Aoki discloses the above elements from claim 12.
They do not disclose:
wherein the control unit is further configured to:
obtain a direct-current current and a quadrature-axis current by performing a coordinate transformation on the three-phase feedback current, and obtain a direct-axis voltage and a quadrature-axis voltage by performing a coordinate transformation on the three-phase output line voltage;
obtain a rotor angle and a rotor speed of the motor by performing a magnetic flux linkage and speed observation based on the direct-current current, the quadrature-axis current, the direct-axis voltage, and the quadrature-axis voltage; and
perform vector control of the motor based on the direct-current current, the quadrature-axis current, the rotor angle, and the rotor speed.
However, Kojima teaches (fig. 2):
wherein the control unit is further configured to:
obtain a direct-current current and a quadrature-axis current (Fig. 2, isdq) by performing a coordinate transformation on the three-phase feedback current (via 301, 302, from 1su, isv, isw, ¶0037-¶0038), and obtain a direct-axis voltage and a quadrature-axis voltage (Vsdq) by performing a coordinate transformation on the three-phase output line
voltage (vsu, csv, vsw, ¶0039-¶0040);
obtain a rotor angle (Fig. 1, from 4, θr) and a rotor speed (output from 3, ωr,) of the motor by performing a magnetic flux linkage and speed observation based on the direct-current current, the quadrature-axis current, the
direct-axis voltage, and the quadrature-axis voltage (¶0037-¶0040); and
perform vector control of the motor based on the direct-current current, the quadrature-axis current, the rotor angle, and the rotor speed (¶0073).
Regarding claim 13, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to take the motor driving device from Aoki that measures the current and voltages in order to determine corrected phase currents to drive a motor (¶0117) based on an on-time resistance (¶0417) and utilize the on time resistance calculation method to measure the on time resistance in order to more accurately detect voltages as taught by Akin (¶0052). This would improve the reliability of the system.
It would have been further obvious to take the current and voltage measurements and use them to calculate the rotor speed and position in order to control the motor as taught by Kojima (¶0073). This would decrease costs because extra sensors would not be needed to perform these functions of calculating speed and velocity for motor control.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5, and 7 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kim (US 2022/0170965) – compensating for offset in current sensing
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/C.S.L./ Examiner, Art Unit 2837 /KAWING CHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837
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