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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/17/2025 was filed. The submission is 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 § 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) 1-6, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17 and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee US Patent Application Publication 2019/0180924 in view of Okamoto US Patent 6,480,088.
Lee discloses in figure 4, a filter module comprising: a circuit board 401 (i.e. a substrate) ; a capacitor C1 disposed on the circuit board; and a first coil module L1 (i.e. a first choke element) , disposed on the circuit board, wherein the first coil module comprises a first ring core 430 having an annular shape, first and second coils 410 420 (i.e. two first windings) , and the first coil and second coil are wound around the first ring core.
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With regard to claim 2, the filter module further comprises a second coil module L2 (i.e. a second choke element) disposed on the circuit board, wherein the capacitor C1 is situated between the first and second coil modules, the second coil module has a second ring core 430’ having an annular shape, a first and second coil 410’ 420’ (i.e. two second windings) and the first and second coils 410’ 420’ are wound around the second ring core.
The ring cores inherently have through holes.
Thus, Lee is shown to teach all the limitations of the claims with the exception of a first magnetic conductive member, wherein the first magnetic conductive member surrounds the first ferrite core and is located adjacent to the capacitor element, a second magnetic conductive member, and, wherein the second magnetic conductive member surrounds the second ferrite core and is located adjacent to the capacitor element, a part of the first magnetic conductive member is located between the first windings , the substrate forms a plurality of first slots, the first magnetic conductive member extends through the first slots and the first magnetic conductive member has a rectangular hollow structure and the magnetic conductive member at least partially covers the through holes of the ring core.
Okamoto discloses a common mode choke coil, comprising: a toroidal magnetic core mounted on a base; two coils wound equally to each other so as to cancel out respective magnetic fluxes relative to a normal mode current, such that one coil is wound around one half of said toroidal magnetic core and another coil is wound around the other half thereof; a partition plate provided inside said toroidal magnetic core so as to isolate said two coils from each other; an insulating protection plate formed substantially like U-letter, said insulating protection plate being detachably attached via its both ends to said base for mounting said toroidal magnetic core; and a belt-like magnetic shield plate attached to said insulating protection plate at its surface opposite to a surface facing said two coils, said magnetic shield plate being provided along a direction of leakage flux of said two coils so as to reduce said leakage flux and being placed along said partition plate so as to cover said toroidal magnetic core.
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With regard to claim 3, Okamoto show in figure 1A, that the belt like magnetic shield plate is located between the first and second coils 291 292.
With regards to claim 4, Okamoto shows in figure 1a the base forms a plurality plate mounting holes 28 , and the belt like magnetic shield plate through the mounting holes.
With regards to claim 5, the belt like magnetic shield plate has a rectangular hollow structure.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to provide the first and second coil modules of Lee with belt like magnetic shield plates as taught by Okamoto.
The motivation for this modification would have been to provide the advantageous benefit of cutting off leakage flux. (column 2;lines 3-8)
Lee discloses in figure 4, a filter module comprising: a circuit board 401 (i.e. a substrate) ; a capacitor C1 disposed on the circuit board; and a first coil module L1 (i.e. a first choke element) , disposed on the circuit board, wherein the first coil module comprises a first ring core 430, first and second coils 410 420 (i.e. two first windings) , and the first coil and second coil are wound around the first ring core. (per claim 6)
With regard to claim 9, the filter module further comprises a second coil module L2 (i.e. a second choke element) disposed on the circuit board, wherein the capacitor C1 is situated between the first and second coil modules, the second coil module has a second ring core 430’, a first and second coil 410’ 420’ (i.e. two second windings) and the first and second coils 410’ 420’ are wound around the second ring core.
Thus, Lee is shown to teach all the limitations of the claims with the exception of the first ferrite core being situated in the first magnetic conductive member, and forms a first opening and the second ferrite core being situated in the second magnetic conductive member and forms a second opening.
Okamoto discloses a common mode choke coil, comprising: a toroidal magnetic core mounted on a base; two coils wound equally to each other so as to cancel out respective magnetic fluxes relative to a normal mode current, such that one coil is wound around one half of said toroidal magnetic core and another coil is wound around the other half thereof; a partition plate provided inside said toroidal magnetic core so as to isolate said two coils from each other; an insulating protection plate formed substantially like U-letter, said insulating protection plate being detachably attached via its both ends to said base for mounting said toroidal magnetic core; and a belt-like magnetic shield plate attached to said insulating protection plate at its surface opposite to a surface facing said two coils, said magnetic shield plate being provided along a direction of leakage flux of said two coils so as to reduce said leakage flux and being placed along said partition plate so as to cover said toroidal magnetic core.
Additionally, as shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, and FIGS. 5A and 5B, the magnetic shield plate 24 may be provided only at areas where leakage flux should be prevented, for example, only on the top face and one side face of the insulating protection plate 23 or only on both side faces (opening on the top) thereof .
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One of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to provide the first and second coil modules of Lee with belt like magnetic shield plates as taught by Okamoto.
The motivation for this modification would have been to provide the advantageous benefit of cutting off leakage flux. (column 2;lines 3-8)
Lee discloses in figure 4, a filter module comprising: a circuit board 401 (i.e. a substrate) ; a capacitor C1 disposed on the circuit board; and a first coil module L1 (i.e. a first choke element) , disposed on the circuit board, wherein the first coil module comprises a first ring core 430 having an annular shape, first and second coils 410 420 (i.e. two first windings) , and the first coil and second coil are wound around the first ring core. (per claim 11)
The ring cores inherently have through hole.
With regards to claim 12, the projections of the capacitor and the first ring core on a plane perpendicular to the central axis of the first through hole at least partially overlap.
With regard to claim 17, the filter module further comprises a second coil module L2 (i.e. a second choke element) disposed on the circuit board, wherein the capacitor C1 is situated between the first and second coil modules, the second coil module has a second ring core 430’ having an annular shape, a first and second coil 410’ 420’ (i.e. two second windings) and the first and second coils 410’ 420’ are wound around the second ring core.
With regards to claim 18, first coil module , the capacitor , and the second coil module are arranged along the central axis of the first through hole.
Thus, Lee is shown to teach all the limitations of the claims with the exception of at least a part of the first through hole is covered by the first magnetic conductive member, the first magnetic conductive member has a first section situated between the first ferrite core and the capacitive element , the first magnetic conductive member further has a second section connected to and bent relative to the first section, at least a part of the second through hole is covered by the second magnetic conductive member..
Okamoto discloses a common mode choke coil, comprising: a toroidal magnetic core mounted on a base; two coils wound equally to each other so as to cancel out respective magnetic fluxes relative to a normal mode current, such that one coil is wound around one half of said toroidal magnetic core and another coil is wound around the other half thereof; a partition plate provided inside said toroidal magnetic core so as to isolate said two coils from each other; an insulating protection plate formed substantially like U-letter, said insulating protection plate being detachably attached via its both ends to said base for mounting said toroidal magnetic core; and a belt-like magnetic shield plate attached to said insulating protection plate at its surface opposite to a surface facing said two coils, said magnetic shield plate being provided along a direction of leakage flux of said two coils so as to reduce said leakage flux and being placed along said partition plate so as to cover said toroidal magnetic core.
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With regards to claim 14 , the belt like magnetic shield plates has a first section situated between the first ring core and the capacitor.
With regards to claim 15, the belt like magnetic shield plate further has a second section connected to and bent relative to the first section.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to provide the first and second coil modules of Lee with belt like magnetic shield plates as taught by Okamoto.
The motivation for this modification would have been to provide the advantageous benefit of cutting off leakage flux. (column 2;lines 3-8)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7, 8, 10, 13, 16 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KIMBERLY E GLENN whose telephone number is (571)272-1761. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 AM-5:00 PM.
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March 25, 2026
/K.E.G/Examiner, Art Unit 2843
/ANDREA LINDGREN BALTZELL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2843
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