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
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in China on 12/19/2022. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the CN202211633928.4. A certified copy application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Should applicant desire to obtain the benefit of foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) prior to declaration of an interference, a certified English translation of the foreign application must be submitted in reply to this action. 37 CFR 41.154(b) and 41.202(e).
Failure to provide a certified translation may result in no benefit being accorded for the non-English application.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xia et al (CN115265646, machine translated; hereafter “Xia”) in view of Ichinose et al (JP2014102914A, machine translated; hereafter “Ichinose”) and further in view of Winter (US20110271743A1; hereafter “Winter”).
Regarding claim 1, Xia teaches a safety valve and temperature detection circuit comprising a battery (a battery pack consisting of multiple batteries connected in series, [0011]), a temperature sensor and a reference resistor that are connected in series [0012] to form a loop [n0023], wherein the temperature sensor is arranged on the battery and is configured to measure the temperature of the battery (the temperature sensor is a thermistor and is set on the corresponding battery, [0012]).
A partial voltage acquisition wire is connected to a wire connected between the temperature sensor and a reference resistor (the acquisition chip obtains the voltage division on the temperature sensor or reference resistor through the voltage division acquisition lines and voltage acquisition lines, [0016]) and the voltage acquisition wires and the partial voltage acquisition wire are connected to corresponding voltage acquisition ports of an acquisition chip respectively (the acquisition chip obtains the voltage division on the temperature sensor or reference resistor through the voltage division acquisition lines and voltage acquisition lines, [0016]).
Xia does not explicitly teach when the safety valve is open, the safety valve sensor is short-circuited, and a voltage acquired by the acquisition chip changes.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Ichinose teaches a battery detector with a battery control unit comprising safety valves (detection device of the present invention is provided in a battery unit having a plurality of secondary batteries, each having a safety valve, [0009]) and safety valve sensor that detects whether the safety valve is actuated (detection circuit 11 comprising detection means 14 detects the resistance value in the detection circuit 11, and determination means 15 determines the operation of safety valve based on detected resistance value, [0024]). When the safety valve is open, safety valve sensor is short circuited and a voltage acquired by the acquisition chip changes (a detection means 14 which detects the resistance value of the detection circuit 11 and determination means 15 which determines whether the safety valve 7 has been activated based on the resistance value detected by means 14, [0021]). When the wires 21 and 22 melt due to safety valve activating from the battery breaking and releasing its internal electrolyte, a short circuit occurs, and a voltage acquired by the acquisition chip changes [0028].
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Figure 1. Ichinose safety valve sensor layout.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, prior to the effective filing date of the invention, to combine the safety valve sensor of Ichinose with the safety valve and temperature detection circuit of Xia. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this combination to be able to detect when the safety valve has activated [0008], instead of relying just the battery control unit which can receive signal indicating a problem with the battery, but unable to determine whether the safety valve has activated or whether the abnormal signal was input to the control device for some other reason [0007].
Xia-Ichinose did not explicitly teach that liquid in the battery is in contact with a bottom of the safety valve sensor.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Winter teaches a leak sensor for flowing electrolyte batteries. The sensors are positioned in the leak containment member, likewise in the bottom of the unit (in case of overflow from any of the containment members, [0030]. When liquid is spilled onto the sensor, it will settle at the bottom, where a sensor is located, hence it is in contact with the bottom of a sensor.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filling date of the invention, to combine the designs of Xia-Ichinose with the leak sensor of Winter. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such combination to achieve early recognition of leaks, by positioning the sensors proximate the lowest point of the respective containment member [0030].
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Figure 2. Sensor Location as Taught by Winter
Regarding claim 4, Xia-Ichinose-Winter teaches all of the limitations as described above.
Xia teaches the voltage acquisition ports comprise battery voltage acquisition ports and a partial voltage acquisition ports (the acquisition chip has a voltage acquisition port, and the voltage acquisition line and the voltage divider acquisition line are connected to the corresponding voltage acquisition port, [0015]), each voltage acquisition wire is connected to a corresponding battery voltage acquisition port, and the partial voltage acquisition wire is connected to the partial voltage acquisition port (acquisition chip obtains the battery's voltage information through the voltage acquisition lines on the positive and negative terminals of the battery; the acquisition chip obtains the voltage division on the temperature sensor or reference resistor through the voltage division acquisition lines and voltage acquisition lines, [0016]).
Regarding claim 6, Xia-Ichinose-Winter teaches all of the limitations as described above.
Xia further teaches plurality of batteries are connected in parallel to each other (a large number of batteries are first connected in parallel and then in series, [n0002]) and two adjacent batteries share one voltage acquisition wire (connection points of two adjacent batteries can share a single voltage acquisition line, [n0027]).
Regarding claim 7, Xia-Ichinose-Winter teaches all of the limitations as described above.
Xia further teaches the temperature sensor is a negative temperature coefficient (NTC) temperature sensor ([n0010]).
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xia et al (CN115265646, machine translated; hereafter “Xia”) in view of Ichinose et al (JP2014102914A, machine translated; hereafter “Ichinose”) and Winter (US20110271743A1) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Chen et al (CN107121243A, machine translated; hereafter “Chen”).
Regarding claim 2, Xia-Ichinose-Winter teaches all the limitations as described above.
Xia-Ichinose-Winter further teaches the valve sensor comprises a main body (Figure 2), a first detection wire and a second detection wire (the temperature acquisition described above is achieved through a two-wire system, [n0017]). The two wires are each made of a conductor material (Ichinose, [0022]).
The limitation “the first detection wire and the second detection wire are spaced apart by the main body” is inherently taught by the prior arts. Ichinose teaches that when the wires melt, short circuit occurs between the wires (Ichinose, [0028]). One of ordinary skill in the art would understand that for short circuit to occur between the two wires, they must first be separated by some distance.
Xia-Ichinose-Winter did not explicitly teach that the safety valve is made of an insulating material.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Chen teaches a sensor for liquid leakage detection of a flow battery. The sensor is characterized in that the sensor is a pattern formed by composting a conductive material on the surface of an insulation polymer material (Abstract). By composting the conductive material on the surface of the insulation polymer material, the sensor is resistant to corrosion, long in service life, cheap in price, simple in processing technology and high in sensitivity (Abstract).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, prior to the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the safety valve sensor of Xia-Ichinose-Winter with the insulating sensor of Chen. One of ordinary skill would be motivated to make this modification for the benefit of a sensor that is corrosion resistant, long service life, low price, simple processing technology and high detection sensitivity [0011].
Regarding claim 3, Xia-Ichinose-Winter-Chen teaches all of the limitations as described above.
Ichinose teaches that the first detection wire and the second detection wire are used as two wiring terminals of the safety valve sensor (a detection circuit consisting of wiring routed across the plurality of secondary batteries [0009]. The wiring consists of a first wire and a second wire connected to both ends of the resistor [0010]). A person of ordinary skill in the art would understand that the wires are connected to the circuit via electrical terminal.
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xia et al (CN115265646, machine translated; hereafter “Xia”) in view of Ichinose et al (JP2014102914A, machine translated; hereafter “Ichinose”) and Winter (US20110271743A1) as applied to claim 4 above, and further in view of Yuan et al (CN204651422U, machine translated; hereafter “Yuan”).
Regarding claim 5, Xia-Ichinose-Winter teaches all of the limitations as described above.
Xia-Ichinose-Winter did not explicitly teach the present of a protective resistor on the acquisition chip, and a switch is connected to the protective resistor, and the protective resistor and the switch are connected in series.
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However, in the adjacent field of battery protection, Yuan teaches a battery redundancy protection device which includes two-stage switch, two independently operating microcontrollers, power supply, battery, load resistor and a current sensor. The switch is connected to the resistor in series as shown in figure 3 below.
Figure 3. Battery Redundancy Protection Device Circuit Diagram
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, prior to the effective filing date of the invention, to combine the resistor and the switch taught by Yuan into the safety valve and temperature detection circuit of Xia-Ichinose-Winter. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to make this combination to protect the acquisition chip from surge, where the system can reliably disconnect the connection between the acquisition chip and the battery from the load, achieving redundancy protection [0018].
Xia further teaches that the switch and protective resistor is connected to the partial voltage acquisition port (the right end of the voltage divider acquisition line is connected to the CT1 port of the acquisition chip [n0023]), and a corresponding battery voltage acquisition port (the left end of the first acquisition line is connected to the negative terminal of battery B1, and the right end of the first acquisition line is connected to the CC0 port of the acquisition chip. The left end of the second acquisition line is connected to the positive terminal of battery B1, and the right end of the second acquisition line is connected to the CC1 port of the acquisition chip, [n0022]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THINH GIA HOANG whose telephone number is (571)270-0275. The examiner can normally be reached 0730-1700.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nicole Buie-Hatcher can be reached at 571-270-3879. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/T.G.H./ Examiner, Art Unit 1725
/NICOLE M. BUIE-HATCHER/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1725
