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
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 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 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Kobayashi et al. (JP 2013-138159).
Regarding claim 1, Kobayashi discloses a composite soft magnetic material having favorable DC superposition characteristics and high specific resistance, and a production method therefore. An inorganic insulative powder 3 and a coated powder obtained by coating with a silicone resin 2 a soft magnetic powder 1 that is coated with an insulative film 4 are uniformly mixed, and the mixture is molded and fired. By uniformly mixing the inorganic insulative powder and the coated powder obtained by coating with the silicone resin the soft magnetic powder that is coated with the insulative film (abstract). Kobayashi discloses in FIG. 4 (a), the inorganic magnetic powder particles are uniformly coated with the silicone resin, and then the inorganic insulating powder is mixed and adhered to the surface of the coated powder, where silicone resin is non-magnetic resin layer of the present invention. The composite soft magnetic material of the present invention can be used in fields such as transformers, choke cores, noise filters, switching power supplies, DC / DC converters, magnetic sensor cores, actuators, and motor cores in addition to reactors (page 4).
Claim(s) 2 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kobayashi et al. (JP 2013-138159) as applied to claim 1, further in view of Otsubo et al. (JP 2019-153614).
Regarding claim 2, Kobayashi fails to disclose that the composite magnetic material comprising the magnetic powder having a non-magnetic resin member that binds the magnetic particles of the magnetic powder.
Whereas, Otsubo discloses manufacturing method of powder magnetic core includes a molding step of pressure molding powder for magnetic core, filling a metal mould, and an annealing step of annealing a compact obtained after the molding step. The powder for magnetic core consists of soft magnetic particles composed of iron alloy containing Al and Si, and coated particles having a compound layer of AlN or AlOformed on the surface of the soft magnetic particles, by heating the soft magnetic particles in nitrogen atmosphere or oxidative atmosphere, and a resin layer composed of silicon resin (non-magnetic resin member of the present invention) formed on the compound layer (abstract).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the application was filed to include silicone resin of Otsubo on to the magnetic material of Kobayashi motivated by the desire to have improved specific resistance and strength.
Regarding claims 6, as Kobayashi discloses inorganic insulating layer as presently claimed, therefore the insulating layer would intrinsically include a crack and crack would intrinsically filled with a resin material.
Claim(s) 3-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kobayashi et al. (JP 2013-138159) in view of Otsubo et al. (JP 2019-153614) as applied to claim 2, further in view of Ito et al. (JP 2015-124408).
Regarding claims 3-5, Otsubo discloses manufacturing method of powder magnetic core includes a molding step of pressure molding powder for magnetic core, filling a metal mould, and an annealing step of annealing a compact obtained after the molding step. The powder for magnetic core consists of soft magnetic particles composed of iron alloy containing Al and Si, and coated particles having a compound layer of AlN or AlOformed on the surface of the soft magnetic particles, by heating the soft magnetic particles in nitrogen atmosphere or oxidative atmosphere, and a resin layer composed of silicon resin (non-magnetic resin member of the present invention) formed on the compound layer (abstract). Although the thickness (layer thickness) of a resin layer changes with amounts of silicone resins, it may be about 0.3 to 3 μm and further about 0.8 to 2 μm (page 4).
However, Kobayashi in view of Otsubo fails to disclose that the thickness of the non-magnetic layer (silicone resin) of Kobayashi has a thickness greater than t4 (thickness of non-magnetic resin member).
Whereas, Ito discloses insulation coating soft magnetic powder of the invention is an insulation coating soft magnetic powder including soft magnetic powder and an insulation coating layer formed on its surface (abstract). The film thickness of the silicone resin film layer is preferably 1 nm or more from the viewpoint of effectively electrically insulating the soft magnetic powder. Moreover, from the viewpoint of increasing the density of the obtained molded body, the film thickness of the silicone resin film layer is preferably 250 nm or less, and more preferably 100 nm or less (page 9).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the application was filed to form silicone resin 2 layer of Kobayashi having a thickness of 1-250 nm and to form non-magnetic resin member of Otsubo having a thickness of 0.3-3 microns motivated by the desire to have electrically insulating properties and increasing the density and to have improved strength. Thus, forming the film thickness in the range above would overlap and satisfy the t3 and t4 equation as claimed in claims 3-4.
As Kobayashi in view of Otsubo are formed of non-magnetic resin layer and non-magnetic resin member with same material such as silicone resin, therefore it would intrinsically meet the relative permittivity and relative dielectric constant equation.
Conclusion
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/RONAK C PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1788
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