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 § 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.
Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Iwai (US 8299664 B2) in view of Kobayashi (JP 2015081539 A).
As to Claim 1, Iwai discloses:
A motor-driven apparatus (1; see Fig. 1), comprising:
a rotary shaft (401, Fig. 1);
an electric motor 30 that rotates the rotary shaft 401 (col. 7, Lines 59-63 “the motor 30 includes the motor case 101, a stator 201, a rotor 301 and a shaft 401. The stator 201 is placed radially inward of the motor case 101. The rotor 301 is placed radially inward of the stator 201. The shaft 401 is rotatable together with the rotor 301”);
an inverter 60 that drives the electric motor 30 and includes a switching element (semiconductor modules 501-506; col. 7, Lines 32-35 “the inverter 60 of FIG. 2 includes the three semiconductor modules. In the present embodiment, the inverter 60 of FIG. 2 is one of two sets of the inverters 60 provided in the power unit 50 of the drive apparatus 1”); and
a metal housing (case 101, frame 102, cover 103, at least 601 of housing is made of metal, col. 34, Lines 42-43 “the heat sink made of, for example, metal”) including a partitioning wall (partition wall 107) that separates a chamber (driving area) and an inverter-accommodating chamber (controlling area) from each other (col. 7, Lines 54-56 “the electronic circuit (specifically, the power unit 50 and the control unit 70) are provided on one axial side of the partition wall 107”; Lines 62-63 “the partition wall 107 partitions between a driving area and a controlling area”), the chamber accommodating the electric motor 30 (30 disposed in driving area), the inverter-accommodating chamber accommodating the inverter (60, part of power unit 50 disposed in controlling area), wherein the switching element (501-506) includes:
a conductive member including a main portion (chip 511, see Fig. 7) and a pin 509 (col. 11, Lines 65-67 “in FIG. 7, the winding wire terminals 508, the control terminals 509 and the capacitor terminals 510 are not shown for the sake of simplicity”) projecting from the main portion 511 (see Fig. 4, 509 project from, modules 501-506); and
a plastic member 520 having a rectangular parallelepiped shape and accommodating the main portion 511 (col. 12, Lines 12-13 “the encapsulation body 520 is made of resin”; Lines 22-23 “The encapsulation body 520 is configured into a generally parallelepiped form”),
the plastic member 520 includes:
a first end surface (top surface 524) that is an end surface in a longitudinal direction (z direction), the pin 509 projecting out of the first end surface 524 (pins 509 project out top of 501-506);
a second end surface (bottom surface 523) that is an end surface located on a side opposite to the first end surface 524 in the longitudinal direction; and
a side surface (521, 522, 525, 526) that connects the first end surface 524 and the second end surface 523 to each other,
the main portion 511 includes a heat generating portion (back side of 501) on the side surface 521 (chip parallel to 521),
the switching element 501-506 is arranged in the inverter-accommodating chamber (controlling area) such that the longitudinal direction (z direction) of the plastic member 520 extends in an axial direction of the rotary shaft (col. 12, Lines 65-67 “the direction of the z-axis coincides with the direction of the central axis of the shaft 401 (i.e., the direction of the motor axis)”),
a heat dissipation member (heat sink 601) made of metal (col. 34, Lines 42-43 “the heat sink made of, for example, metal”) is arranged between the switching element 501 and the partitioning wall 107 (106 projects from 107, 106 disposed between 501 and 107), and
the heat dissipation member 601 includes:
a first heat dissipation portion 605 arranged between the heat generating portion (back side of 501) and the partitioning wall 107 (605 disposed between back of 501 and 107); and
a second heat dissipation portion 108 that is continuous with the first heat dissipation portion 605 and arranged between the second end surface 523 and the partitioning wall 107 (108 between 523 and 107).
Iwai does not disclose (in the present embodiment):
A motor-driven compressor, comprising:
a compression unit that compresses a fluid through rotation of the rotary shaft;
a housing including a partitioning wall that separates a suction chamber and an inverter-accommodating chamber from each other, the suction chamber accommodating the electric motor and drawing in the fluid,
the heat generating portion being exposed externally from the plastic member.
However, Iwai further discloses (in another embodiment):
the heat generating portion 511 being exposed externally from the plastic member 1512 (col. 36, Lines 49-50 “a portion of the semiconductor chip 511 is externally exposed from the encapsulation body 1512”);
in order to effectively release the heat of the semiconductor chip (col. 34, Lines 43-44).
Further, Kobayashi discloses:
A motor-driven compressor (electric compressor 1; Fig. 1), comprising:
a compression unit (compression mechanism 3) that compresses a fluid through rotation of the rotary shaft (Par. 0011 “The main housing 2A contains a compression mechanism 3 for compressing the refrigerant and an electric motor 4 for driving the compression mechanism 3”; Par. 0013 “The refrigerant compressed by the compression mechanism 3 is discharged from a discharge port (not shown)”);
a housing 2 including a partitioning wall 6 that separates a suction chamber S1 (Par. 0013 “the first space S1 is cooled by the suctioned refrigerant”) and an inverter-accommodating chamber S2 from each other, the suction chamber S1 accommodating the electric motor 4 and drawing in the fluid (Par. 0012 “the housing 2 of the electric compressor 1 has a first space S1 for housing the compression mechanism 3 and the electric motor 4, a second space S2 for housing the inverter 5, and a partition wall 6 that separates the first space S1 and the second space S2”);
in order to provide an electric compressor for use in vehicle air conditioning systems (Par. 0001).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the related art(s) before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the device of Iwai as further suggested by Kobayashi e.g., providing:
A motor-driven compressor, comprising:
a compression unit that compresses a fluid through rotation of the rotary shaft;
a housing including a partitioning wall that separates a suction chamber and an inverter-accommodating chamber from each other, the suction chamber accommodating the electric motor and drawing in the fluid;
in order to provide an electric compressor for use in vehicle air conditioning systems.
Additionally, all claimed elements were known in the prior art and one skilled in the art could have combined/modified the elements as claimed by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination/modification would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. See KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S.___, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007).
As to Claim 2, the obvious modification of Iwai in view of Kobayashi discloses:
wherein the partitioning wall (107 if Iwai) includes:
a first wall surface 108 that is an end surface of the partitioning wall in the axial direction of the rotary shaft 104 and is exposed to the inverter-accommodating chamber (108 exposed to controlling area; e.g., top side of 107 in z direction);
a second wall surface (underside of 108) that is an end surface located on a side opposite to the first wall surface 108 in the axial direction of the rotary shaft 104; and
an accommodating recess (groove 109) that is recessed from the first wall surface 108 and projects from the second wall surface (109 is recessed from 108 and projects into underside of 108), and
the switching element (501 of 501-506) is arranged in the accommodating recess (at least a portion, e.g., 530 of 501, is disposed in 109; Iwai).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
As to claims 3-5, the allowability resides in the overall structure and functionality of the device as recited in the dependent claim 3, including all of the limitations of their base claims and intervening claims, and at least in part, because claim 3 recite the following limitations:
“the heat dissipation member includes two third heat dissipation portions that are continuous with the first heat dissipation portion and arranged between the third side surfaces and the partitioning wall.” – claim 3.
Kimura (US 20040052660 A1) discloses an electric compressor with encapsulated switching devices and a groove, however, does not disclose the claimed configuration of the heat dissipating member.
Patyk (US 5939807 A) discloses a power switching element abutting a biasing member, however, does not disclose the claimed configuration of the heat dissipating member.
Mizuno (US 20110217190 A1) discloses an electric compressor with circuit components, however, does not disclose the claimed configuration of the heat dissipating member.
The aforementioned limitations in combination with all remaining limitations of claim 3, are believed to render said claim 3 and all claims dependent therefrom allowable over the prior art of record, taken alone or in combination.
Further, Examiner has not identified any double patenting issues.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW S MUIR whose telephone number is (571)270-1329. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8 am - 5 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jayprakash Gandhi can be reached at 571-272-3740. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MATTHEW SINCLAIR MUIR/ Examiner, Art Unit 2841
/Jayprakash N Gandhi/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2841
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