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 9/12/24 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 § 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.
(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, 4-5, and 7-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/(a)(2) as being anticipated by Ajima et al. (US 2016/0094180).
Regarding claim 1,
Ajima discloses (Fig. 1):
A motor control device (Fig. 1, 500) that is connected to an inverter (110) that converts direct current power (BAT) into three-phase alternating-current power and outputs the converted power to a motor (300, ¶0035-¶0036), and controls operation of the inverter (110) to control drive of the motor (300) by using the inverter (110, ¶0046-¶0047), the motor control device comprising: a current control unit (210) that calculates a voltage command with respect to a d-axis and a q- axis of the motor at every predetermined calculation cycle (¶0040); a carrier wave generation unit (220) that generates a carrier wave (Fig. 6 (a), TPWM, ¶0089); a carrier wave frequency adjustment unit that adjusts a frequency of the carrier wave (also performed in 220, ¶0039-¶0041); a phase calculation unit (120) that calculates a voltage phase of the inverter based on a rotation position of the motor (voltage is based on rotor position, ¶0040);
a divided phase calculation unit (230) that calculates a divided phase in which the voltage phase is divided for every predetermined division number of two or more (¶0067-¶0068, Fig. 4, table shows division by 2 or 3);a three-phase voltage conversion unit that converts the voltage command into a three- phase voltage command based on the divided phase (performed in 210, ¶0040); and a PWM control unit (220) that performs pulse width modulation on the three-phase voltage command using the carrier wave and generates a PWM pulse signal for controlling operation of the inverter (¶0041).
Regarding claim 2,
Ajima discloses (Fig. 1):
comprising: a first calculation unit including the three-phase voltage conversion unit (120, divides 3 phase voltages by neutral point voltage, VN, ¶0051); and a second calculation unit including the divided phase calculation unit (230, ¶0051-¶0052) ,wherein the first calculation (120) unit and the second calculation unit (230) are configured using pieces of hardware different from each other (230 is part of the controller whereas 120 is hardware resistors, ¶0051).
Regarding claim 4,
Ajima discloses (Fig. 1):
wherein the first calculation unit is a microcomputer (¶0073), and the second calculation unit is a logical operation circuit that performs a predetermined logical operation (¶0051).
Regarding claim 5,
Ajima discloses (Fig. 1):
wherein the carrier wave frequency adjustment unit (fig. 1, 220) adjusts a frequency of the carrier wave such that a value of a ratio of a calculation cycle of the voltage command to a cycle of the carrier wave is an integer (¶0095, can adjust frequency to make the carrier wave and voltage command an integer).
Regarding claim 7,
Ajima discloses (Fig. 1):
wherein the divided phase calculation unit includes a trigger output unit that outputs a trigger signal for each cycle of the carrier wave (measures TPWM cycle, Fig. 6), and a PLL calculation unit that executes a PLL calculation based on the trigger signal output from the trigger output unit, and calculates the divided phase by updating the voltage phase for each cycle of the trigger signal (performs every carrier period, ¶0093-¶0095).
Regarding claim 8,
Ajima discloses (Fig. 1):
A method of controlling operation of an inverter (110) that converts direct current power (BAT) into three-phase alternating-current power and outputs the converted power to a motor (300, ¶0035-¶0036) to control drive of the motor (300) by using the inverter (110, ¶0046-¶0047), the motor control method comprising: calculating a voltage command (via 210) with respect to a d-axis and a q-axis of the motor at every predetermined calculation cycle (¶0040); adjusting a frequency of the carrier wave (via 220, ¶0039-¶0040); calculating a voltage phase of the inverter based on a rotation position of the motor (voltage is based on rotor position, ¶0040);
calculating the divided phase (via 230) by using a value in which a calculation cycle of the voltage command is divided by a predetermined division number as a calculation cycle of a divided phase based on the voltage phase (¶0067-¶0068, Fig. 4, table shows division by 2 or 3);converting the voltage command into a three-phase voltage command based on the divided phase (performed in 210, ¶0040); and generating a PWM pulse signal (220) for controlling operation of the inverter by performing pulse width modulation on the three-phase voltage command using the carrier wave (¶0041).
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) 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ajima et al. (US 2016/0094180) in view of Kamel et al. (US 2014/0371936).
Regarding claim 3,
Ajima discloses (Fig. 1):
the first calculation unit (120)
the second calculation unit (230)
Ajima does not disclose:
is a first core included in a microcomputer
is a second core included in the microcomputer
However, Kamel teaches:
is a first core included in a microcomputer (¶0195)
is a second core included in the microcomputer (¶0195)
Regarding claim 3, 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 microcontroller from Ajima that uses a microcomputer to control a motor (¶0073) and use multiple cores or processors as taught by Kamel (¶0195) to improve processing. This would improves the performance of the motor control by having faster processors to process data faster.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 6 is 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.
Kato et al. (US 2015/0236609) – Power conversion device
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHARLES S LAUGHLIN whose telephone number is (571)270-7244. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Eduardo Colon-Santana can be reached at 571-272-2060. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/C.S.L./Examiner, Art Unit 2837
/DAVID LUO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837
Prosecution Insights