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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 8 and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Uchida (US PUB 2018/0056809).
With respect to claim 1, Uchida discloses an impedance measurement device (See the device disclosed in figure 1 of Uchida) comprising: a switching circuit (See [151] in figure 1 of Uchida) that forms a loop circuit (See the loop formed by the combination of [151] and [21] in figure 1 of Uchida) together with a battery (See [21] in figure 1 of Uchida); a current measurer connected to a path connecting the battery and the switching circuit (See paragraph [0044] of Uchida); and a voltage measurement device connected to both ends of the battery (See [141] in figure 1 of Uchida), wherein switching circuit generates a current flowing intermittently through the loop circuit from the battery (See from figure 1 of Uchida that when switch [151] is closed current is allowed to flow, however when switch [151] is open the current stops, thus making current flow intermittent), and the impedance measurement device (See [16] in figure 1 of Uchida): changes a time during which the current flows intermittently and a time during which the current does not flow (See paragraph [0045] in view of paragraph [0053] of Uchida) to sweep a frequency of an alternating current from the battery (See paragraph [0061] of Uchida); and measures the alternating current using the current measurer (See paragraphs [0044] and [0045] of Uchida) and measures an alternating current voltage of the battery using the voltage measurement device to derive an alternating current impedance of the battery (See paragraphs [0044] and [0045] of Uchida).
With respect to claim 2, Uchida discloses the impedance measurement device according to claim 1, further comprising: a controller that controls the switching circuit (See [300] in figure 1 of Uchida), wherein the controller controls an operation cycle of the switching circuit to sweep the frequency of the alternating current through the switching circuit (See paragraph [0061] of Uchida).
With respect to claim 8, Uchida discloses an impedance measurement device (See the device disclosed in figure 1 of Uchida) comprising: a discharge switch (See [151] in figure 1 of Uchida), a limiting resistor (See paragraph [0084] of Uchida), and part of a switching circuit which form a first loop circuit (See the loop formed by the combination of [151] and [21] in figure 1 of Uchida) together with a battery (See [21] in figure 1 of Uchida); a current measurer connected to a path connecting the battery and the discharge switch (See paragraph [0044] of Uchida); and a voltage measurement device connected to both ends of the battery (See [141] in figure 1 of Uchida), wherein the discharge switch, the limiting resistor, and the part of the switching circuit generate a current flowing intermittently through the first loop circuit from the battery (See from figure 1 of Uchida that when switch [151] is closed current is allowed to flow, however when switch [151] is open the current stops, thus making current flow intermittent), and the impedance measurement device (See [16] in figure 1 of Uchida): changes a time during which the current flows intermittently and a time during which the current does not flow (See paragraph [0045] in view of paragraph [0053] of Uchida) to sweep a frequency of an alternating current from the battery (See paragraph [0061] of Uchida); and measures the alternating current using the current measurer (See paragraphs [0044] and [0045] of Uchida) and measures an alternating current voltage of the battery using the voltage measurement device to derive an alternating current impedance of the battery (See paragraphs [0044] and [0045] of Uchida).
With respect to claim 9, Uchida discloses the impedance measurement device according to claim 8, further comprising: a discharge switch controller that controls the discharge switch (See [300] in figure 1 of Uchida), wherein the discharge switch controller controls an operation cycle of the discharge switch to sweep the frequency of the alternating current through the discharge switch (See paragraph [0061] of Uchida).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10-13 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 3, the prior art of record neither shows nor suggest the combination of structural elements wherein the switching circuit includes an inductor and an energy storage device which are inserted in series on the loop circuit, the energy storage device stores energy drawn from the battery while the alternating current and the alternating current voltage are measured, and the impedance measurement device regenerates energy stored in the energy storage device into the battery while the alternating current and the alternating current voltage are not measured.
Claim 4 and 7 depend from objected to claim 3 and are therefore also objected to.
With respect to claim 5, the prior art of record neither shows nor suggests the combination of structural elements wherein the switching circuit includes an inductor and an energy storage device which are inserted in series on the loop circuit, the energy storage device regenerates energy into the battery while the alternating current and the alternating current voltage are measured, and the impedance measurement device discharges energy stored in the battery to the energy storage device while the alternating current and the alternating current voltage are not measured.
Claim 6 depends from objected to claim 5 and is therefore also objected to.
With respect to claim 10, the prior art of record neither shows nor suggests the combination of structural elements wherein the switching circuit forms a second loop circuit together with the battery, and includes an inductor and an energy storage device which are inserted in series on the second loop circuit, the energy storage device is part of the switching circuit, forms the first loop circuit together with the battery, the discharge switch, and the limiting resistor, and stores energy drawn from the battery while the alternating current and the alternating current voltage are measured, and the impedance measurement device regenerates energy stored in the energy storage device into the battery through the second loop circuit while the alternating current and the alternating current voltage are not measured.
Claims 11-13 depend from objected to claim 10 and are therefore also objected to.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US PUB 2017/0003354 discloses an energy storage cell impedance measuring device for
impedance measurement of high voltage energy storage cells, has impedance computation
module to compute impedance of energy storage cell for each frequency of sum-of-sinusoids
(SOS) signal.
US PUB 2017/0185733 discloses a retrospective sensor systems, devices, and methods.
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/TEMILADE S RHODES-VIVOUR/ Examiner, Art Unit 2858
/HUY Q PHAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2858