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 12/09/2024 and 10/16/2025 are 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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 1 and 7 recites the limitation "period of the carrier signal" in line 16. It is unclear which carrier signal since lines 13-14 recite “a carrier signal any of the submodules” meaning multiple carrier signals. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1-4 and 7-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Wang Jiaxin et. al. “Common-Mode Voltage Reduction of Modular Multilevel Converter Based on Chaotic Carrier Phase Shifted Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation”, 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility & Signal/Power Integrity (EMCSI), IEEE, 28 July 2020, pages 626-631.
Regarding claims 1, 2, 7, and 8 Wang et. al. teaches a power conversion device (Fig. 1) to perform power conversion between a DC circuit (e.g. Udc)(Fig. 1) and an AC circuit (e.g. Rload)(Fig. 1), the power conversion device comprising:
a plurality of arms (e.g. 3 upper and 3 lower)(Fig. 1); and
a control device (Fig. 3),
each of the arms including a plurality of submodules (e.g. SM1, SM2-SMn)(Fig. 1) connected in series with each other,
each of the submodules including:
an input/output terminal pair (e.g. SM +/- pair)(Fig. 1);
a bridge circuit (e.g. SM (IGBT1/IGBT2))(Fig. 1) including a plurality of switching elements (e.g. IGBT1/IGBT2)(Fig. 1); and
a power storage element (e.g. Csm)(Fig. 1) connected to the input/output terminal pair through the bridge circuit, wherein
the control device (Fig. 3) controls the bridge circuit of each submodule by phase shift pulse width modulation (Fig. 2), and an initial phase of a carrier signal for use in the phase shift pulse width modulation in each submodule (e.g. each submodule has a respective PWM carrier signal, which are phase shifted with respect to each other)(Fig. 2) is set to be different from an initial phase of a carrier signal of any of other submodules , and
when a period of the carrier signal is dynamically changed, the control device changes a period of the carrier signal at timing when a phase of the carrier signal in each submodule is equal to the initial phase (e.g. frequency of carrier signals change once a complete period of a carrier period is terminated (i.e. timing when a phase of the carrier signal in each submodule is equal to the initial phase))(Fig. 4).
Regarding claims 3 and 9, Wang et. al. teaches wherein when the initial phase of the carrier signal is dynamically changed, the control device changes the initial phase by adding an adjustment value common among the submodules to an initial phase initially set for each of the submodules (Page 628, lines 2-5, “The switching frequency changes chaotically around the reference switching frequency to obtain a chaotic carrier, which is then compared with the modulated wave to obtain a new PWM control signal”).
Regarding claims 4 and 10, Wang et. al. teaches wherein when a period of the carrier signal is changed from a first period to a second period, a common multiple of the first period and the second period is equal to an integer multiple of a period of voltage of the AC circuit (Fig. 4 (a/b) integer of 1 shows same amplitude of Cp1...Cpn and Cn1…Cnn).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-6 and 11-12 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.
Regarding claims 5 and 11, none of the prior art, taken singly or in combination, teaches or fairly suggest “wherein the control device generates a reset signal having a period equal to the integer multiple of the period of the AC circuit and synchronized with voltage of the AC circuit, and transmits the reset signal as well as command values for a period and an initial phase of the carrier signal to each submodule, and
in response to the reset signal, each submodule sets the period and the initial phase of the carrier signal in accordance with the command values”.
Claim 6 is indicated allowable, as it depends on claim 5.
Claim 12 is indicated allowable, as it depends on claim 11.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JONATHAN W SOILEAU whose telephone number is (571)272-6650. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 6:30 - 4:00 CT.
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/JONATHAN WALTER SOILEAU/Examiner, Art Unit 2838
/CRYSTAL L HAMMOND/Supervisory Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838
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