DETAILED ACTION
This Office action is in response to the application filed on 28 October 2024.
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.
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 1,3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Roberto Rizzolatti et. al, (2021 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), DOI: 10.1109/APEC42165.2021.9487136; hereafter “Roberto”) in view of Stefano Saggini et. al (2019 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), IEEE; DOI:10.1109/APEC.2019.8721860; hereafter “Saggini”).
-Regarding claim 1;
Roberto discloses;
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A switched-capacitor coupled-inductor converter (Fig. 2), comprising a positive input interface (Fig. 2; red arrow a), a negative input interface (Fig. 2; red arrow b), a positive output interface (Fig. 2; red arrow c), a negative output interface (Fig. 2; red arrow d), a converter (Fig. 2; two inductors in red box), and a near-end power conversion unit(Fig. 2; Q1, Q2, and Q3) and a far-end power conversion unit(Fig. 2; Q4, Q5, and Q6) connected in parallel between the positive input interface and the negative input interface, wherein an output capacitor (Fig. 2; Vout) is arranged between the positive output interface and the negative output interface, the near-end power conversion unit comprises a near-end first power switch (Fig. 2; Q1), a near-end second power switch (Fig. 2; Q2), and a near-end third power switch (Fig. 2;Q3)connected in series, the far-end power conversion unit comprises a far-end first power switch (Fig. 2; Q4), a far-end second power switch (Fig. 2; Q5), and a far-end third power switch (Fig. 2; Q6)connected in series, the converter comprises two coupled inductors (Fig. 2 two identical inductors in red box), and the two coupled inductors have a same number of turns(Fig. 2; N2 and N2 in red box); an undotted terminal of one coupled inductor (Fig. 2; right side of left inductor in red box) of the converter is connected to a dotted terminal of the other coupled inductor (Fig. 2; left side of right inductor in red box) of the converter, a dotted terminal of the coupled inductor (Fig. 2; left side of left inductor in red box) of the converter is connected between the near-end second power switch and the near-end third power switch, and an undotted terminal of the other coupled inductor (Fig. 2; right side of right inductor in red box) of the converter is connected between the far-end second power switch and the far-end third power switch; the capacitor Cres1 is equal to the capacitor Cres2 (Roberto discloses in the section II ); and a positive output port is connected to the two coupled inductors (Fig. 2; node “com”), a negative output port is connected to a negative input port (Fig. 2; bottom line), and the negative output port and the negative input port are further connected to the ground (Fig. 2; ground point).
However, Roberto does not disclose two coupled LC series resonant converters in the switched-capacitor coupled-inductor converter. Roberto discloses a transformer with a primary winding (Fig.2; N1) and a secondary winding (Fig. 2; N2) instead.
Saggini discloses:
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“a capacitor (Fig. 1; Cr) is arranged between a node (Fig. 1;red circle) between the near-end first power switch (Fig. 1; Q1) and the near-end second power switch (Fig. 1; Q2) of the near-end power conversion unit and a ground terminal node (Fig. 1; node Ia) of the of the far-end power conversion unit; a capacitor (Fig. 1; Cr) is arranged between a ground terminal node (Fig. 1; node Ia) of a node (Fig. 1;red circle) between the far-end first power switch (Fig. 1; Q1) and the far-end second power switch (Fig. 1; Q2) of the far-end power conversion unit,”
Saggini discloses an ordinary used example of LC series resonant converter (Fig. 1; red arrows) connected to the node (Fig. 1; red circle) between two switches (Fig. 1; Q1 and Q2) as the claimed invention. Saggini taught and gave a motivation for replacing the transformer with the primary and the secondary windings described in Roberto into the simple LC series resonant converter described in claimed invention.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the device described in Roberto such that a commonly used LC series resonant converter replaces the transformer with the primary and the secondary windings in the hybrid switched capacitor converter. Doing so allows for providing a desirable level of a flexible voltage transformation ratio in the power conversion system, improvement of efficiency, and an increase in the power density.
-Regarding claim 3;
Roberto discloses:
A control method of the switched-capacitor coupled-inductor converter according to claim 1, wherein the near-end first power switch Q1, the far-end second power switch Q3, and the near-end third power switch Q5 are controlled to be simultaneously turned off and turned on by a control signal I (Fig. 2; ɸa), the far-end first power switch Q2, the near-end second power switch Q4, and the far-end third power switch Q6 are controlled to be simultaneously turned off and turned on by a control signal II(Fig. 2; ɸb), and phases of the control signal I and the control signal II are offset from each other by 180 degrees (Fig. 3 ; main operation waveform of the converter).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 4-6 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
-with respect to claim 2:
the prior arts in Roberto, and Saggini disclose the claimed invention in basic claims but do not further disclose about a magnetic core column of two coupled inductors.
-with respect to claim 4:
the prior arts in Roberto, and Saggini disclose the claimed invention in basic claims but do not further disclose about a control method of the switches in both far-end and near-end power conversion units.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The reference (Cheng Li, A Comparative Study of Hybrid DC-DC Converters by Indirect Power) reviews and classifies hybrid converters from the perspective of the power processed by their components including the LC series resonant converter.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SEUNG HO CHOI whose telephone number is (571)272-8188. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday, 7:30 AM - 5:30 PM ET.
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/SEUNG HO CHOI/Examiner, Art Unit 2838
/CRYSTAL L HAMMOND/Supervisory Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838