DETAILED ACTION
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 3-6, 9, and 11-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Vanderwees (US 2022/0404100).
Regarding claim 1, Vanderwees teaches: an apparatus comprising a cooling system (10) for a high voltage inverter (Para. [0044]) including a separator (34) with at least one flow aperture (30, 74) integrally formed as part of the separator; a heat sink (14) located in proximity to the separator; a plurality of power modules mounted to the heat sink (2); a first flow area located on a first side of the separator (area above 34 connected to 56); a second flow area on a second side of the separator (area below 34 flowed into via 74, 76, 30 and out of via 58) between the separator and the heat sink; a plurality of heat transfer areas which are part of the heat sink (regions associated with each device 2; in the illustrated example there are three areas) each with a power module mounted therein; and a plurality of flow paths, a first flow path including a first portion of the fluid flowing through the first flow area and around an end of the separator (via 30) and then through the second flow area, a second flow path flowing through a part of the first flow area, through the at least one flow aperture (74, 76) and then through part of the second area; the first portion of fluid reduces the temperature of a first and second heat transfer areas (the first being furthest from 56/58 and the second being the central area) and the second portion of fluid reduces the temperature of the second heat transfer area (the central area).
Regarding claim 9, Vanderwees teaches: an inverter (Para. [0044]) having a cooling system comprising: a housing (12, 14); a separator in the housing (34); with at least one flow aperture (30, 74) integrally formed as part of the separator; a heat sink (14) located in proximity to the separator; a plurality of power modules mounted to the heat sink (2); a first flow area located on a first side of the separator (area above 34 connected to 56); a second flow area on a second side of the separator (area below 34 flowed into via 74, 76, 30 and out of via 58) between the separator and the heat sink; a plurality of heat transfer areas which are part of the heat sink (regions associated with each device 2; in the illustrated example there are three areas) each with a power module mounted therein; and a plurality of flow paths, a first flow path including a first portion of the fluid flowing through the first flow area and around an end of the separator (via 30) and then through the second flow area, a second flow path flowing through a part of the first flow area, through the at least one flow aperture (74, 76) and then through part of the second area; the first portion of fluid reduces the temperature of a first and second heat transfer areas (the first being furthest from 56/58 and the second being the central area) and the second portion of fluid reduces the temperature of the second heat transfer area (the central area).
Vanderwees further teaches that: the flow apertures comprise a plurality of flow apertures (74, 76) integrally formed as part of the separator with a first portion forming part of the second flow path (see Fig. 7; apertures located at 70B), per claims 3 and 11-12; a third flow path (Fig. 7; associated with 70C) including a third portion of the fluid flowing through part of the first flow area, through a second portion of the flow apertures (apertures 74 associated with 70C) and then through part of the second flow area reducing the temperature of a third of the plurality of heat transfer areas (the area closest to 56/58), per claims 4 and 13; the diameter of the first and second plurality of flow apertures are different (see fig. 4 with the second apertures having a larger diameter than the first), per claims 5 and 15; a housing (12, 14) with the heat sink and separator located in a cavity of the housing (14 forms both the housing and the heat sink in exactly the same way that the exterior plate of the housing is defined as the ‘heat sink’ in the applicant’s disclosure; it is therefore treated as being “insides” the enclosure that it forms in the same manner, i.e. by having its internal surface inside of the housing cavity), an inlet integrally formed as part of the housing (22) and an outlet integrally formed as part of the housing (24), wherein the inlet communicates with the first and the outlet communicates with the second flow areas, respectively (see fig. 7), per claims 6 and 16; at least two apertures each are part of the second and third flow paths (fig. 4), per claim 14.
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) 2 and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vanderwees in view of Blakely (US 4,762,173).
Regarding claims 2 and 10, Vanderwees teaches that a base portion (14) being part of the heat sink but teaches the mounting of corrugated fins (66) to the base portion in the second flow area to induce flow around the fins rather than pins.
Blakely teaches that it is old and well-known to form a heat sink base portion (13) across which a fluid flows (abstract) with pins (20) integrally formed as part of the base portion (see Fig. 1) with receiving apertures (40) formed in the facing structure (12) wherein a part of each pin extends into a corresponding receiving aperture (Fig. 1) such that a portion of each pin is disposed between the base portion and the facing structure and the flow area includes flow around the pins.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to utilize the pin structure of Blakely in the device of Vanderwees in order to reduce the thermal resistance between the base portion and fins of Blakely.
Claim(s) 7-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vanderwees in view of Ben Ahmed (US 2018/0149111).
Regarding claims 7-8, Vanderwees teaches flow apertures with inlets (open to first flow space) and outlets (open to second flow space) but does not specify the formation of the flow apertures as nozzles.
Ben Ahmed teaches that it is old and well-known to form flow apertures for a cooling fluid (7) in such devices as nozzles, including with an angled inlet portion (Fig. 18; 45) a central aperture integrally formed with the inlet portion (Fig. 18) and an angled outlet portion integrally formed with the central aperture on the opposite side from the inlet (Para. [0060] which specifies that the portion 45 may also be formed on the outlet side), per claim 7; the inlet, outlet, and central aperture all have sidewalls and the central aperture is smaller than the inlet/outlet thus forcing an increase in flow rate, per claim 8.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to form the device of Vanderwees with the apertures as nozzles, as taught by Ben Ahmed, in order to increase the fluid mixing downstream of the apertures and break up boundary layers in the portion of the fluid already flowing in the second flow area.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Devon Lane whose telephone number is (571)270-1858. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th, 9-4.
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/DEVON LANE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3763
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