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 filed on 12/06/2024 has been considered. An initialed copy of form 1449 is enclosed herewith.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1- 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Smolenaers (US 20200298722 A1) in view of Matsukawa (US 20220302783 A1) and Carvell (US 20220311369 A1).
Re. Claim 1, Smolenaers discloses an electric machine control circuit (200 in Fig. 2A), comprising:
a three-phase AC electric machine (7);
a three-phase inverter (17), wherein,
in an electric machine drive mode (“first state” ¶. [0060]), the three-phase inverter is configured to receive DC power from an external power battery (3) and output AC power for driving the three-phase AC electric machine (7), and
in a DC boost charging mode (“second state” ¶. [0060]), three-phase windings of an electric machine stator of the three-phase AC electric machine are used as an inductive energy storage element of a DC boost charging circuit (see inductive load in the form of a three phase motor 7, with three windings in a wye configuration in Fig. 2A), the inductive energy storage element and the three-phase inverter together forming the DC boost charging circuit, such that an external power supply module charges the external power battery by means of the DC boost charging circuit (¶. [0117]), wherein
Smolenaers discloses machine 7 has three inductive windings (e.g., as disclosed herein in FIGS. 2-6), while in other embodiments the machines may each have any number of inductive windings and different machine winding configurations with various slot designs and numbers. However, Smolenaers is silence with regard to wire slots in windings are at least 54 wire slots. The cited reference teaches that different number of slots can be used, such as 96, 84, 72, 60 and 54. It is understood that this number depends in particular on the application of the machine, the diameter of the stator and the number of poles of the rotor (for instance, Matsukawa, ¶. [0094]; Carvell, ¶. [0041]).
The Examiner considers that it would have been an obvious matter of design choice to provide motor design with predetermined numbers of wire slots as necessitated by the specific requirements of the particular application; “this can increase the efficiency, or power rating of the charging conversion by eliminating bottle neck, voltage drop, or impedance of MOSFET 139” (Smolenaers, ¶. [0114]). Thus, tuning the motor to comply with predetermined design constraints. Furthermore, it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art. In re Aller, 105 USPQ 233; also it has been held that discovering an optimum value of a result effective variable involves only routine skill in the art. In re Boesch, 617 F.2d 272, 205 USPQ 215 (CCPA 1980).
Re. claim 2, the combination of the cited references discloses wherein the inductive energy storage element is formed solely by the three-phase windings (19a,19b,19c Smolenaers Fig. 2A) in the wire slots of the electric machine stator of the three-phase AC electric machine (7).
Re. claims 3 and 12, the combination of the cited references discloses wherein the wire slots are 54 wire slots, 60 wire slots, 66 wire slots or 72 wire slots (see for instance, Matsukawa, ¶. [0094]; Carvell, ¶. [0041]).
Re. claim 4, the combination of the cited references discloses wherein the electric machine stator has 6 magnetic poles (Matsukawa, ¶. [0082]).
Re. claims 5 and 13, the combination of the cited references discloses wherein the electric machine stator has 8 magnetic poles, and the wire slots are 72 wire slots rotor (Matsukawa, ¶. [0122], [0094]; Carvell, ¶. [0041] and Zhang et al. (US 20220255385 A1)).
Re. claims 6 and 14, the combination of the cited references discloses wherein, in the DC boost charging mode, a first end of the three-phase inverter is electrically connected to the external power battery, and a second end of the three- phase inverter is electrically connected to the external power supply module and the external power battery; and wherein the midpoints of three-phase bridge arms of the three-phase inverter are each connected to a corresponding end of the three-phase windings of the three-phase AC electric machine, with the other ends of the three-phase windings of the three-phase AC electric machine being electrically connected to the external power supply module via a common connection point (Smolenaers Figs. 2A- F)
Re. claim 7, the combination of the cited references discloses wherein in the DC boost charging mode, the common connection point of the three-phase windings of the three-phase AC electric machine is electrically connected to the external power supply module, such that no additional inductive element is provided between the common connection point and the external power supply module (Smolenaers Figs. 2A- F also FIG. 5 where switch 48 is not employed).
Re. claims 8, 9, and 15, the combination of the cited references discloses wherein the nominal rotation speed of the three-phase AC electric machine is at least 17000- 20000 r/min (Matsukawa teaches “by switching the winding to which current is applied, it is possible to switch the rotational speed between high-speed rotation (4-pole winding) and low-speed rotation (8-pole winding), using current having the same electric angle frequency” ¶. [0143], except the high speed value 17000- 20000 r/min. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to set the high speed range at 17000-20000 r/min, since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art. In re Aller, 105 USPQ 233.)
Re. claims 16- 20, Smolenaers discloses an electric machine control circuit (200 in Fig. 2A).
Conclusion
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/SAID BOUZIANE/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837
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