DETAILED ACTION
1. This office action is a response to communication submitted on 10/31/2024.
Information Disclosure Statement
2. The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
3. Claims 1-20 are presented for examination.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
4. 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 2 and 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.
Claim 2 recites “wherein the trapezoidal wave modulating signal is capable of achieving a modulation index for the inverter of greater than one”. The limitation reciting capable of is not a positive limitation leaving the claim unclear and vague since being capable does not positive define a possibility of being also uncappable.
For office action purposes, the limitation will be considered ambiguous as presented.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
5. 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.
6. Claims 1 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by AJIMA et al. (US 20190363646 A1).
In regards to claims 1 and its corresponding method claim 11, AJIMA shows (Figs. 1-7) and discloses a control system for an electric motor (300) of an electrified vehicle (Fig. 6), the control system and method comprising:
an inverter (110) of the electrified vehicle, the inverter comprising a set of switches (see inverter 110, Fig. 1, par. 21) and being configured to receive three pulse-width modulation (PWM) signals and to control the set of switches to generate an alternating current (AC) output voltage from a direct current (DC) link voltage (i.e. DCV) provided by a battery system (200) of the electrified vehicle (see abstract and pars. 18-23); and
a control system (enclosed on 100, i.e. a current controller 120, a PWM controller 145,) configured to:
determine a torque command for the electric motor (i.e. T*, pars. 59-61);
determine commanded d-axis and q-axis voltages based on the torque command (pars. 20-26);
generate a trapezoidal wave modulating signal for carrier-based PWM based on the commanded d-axis and q-axis voltages and generate the three PWM signals by performing carrier-based PWM using the trapezoidal wave modulating signal (see pars. 16, 21, 23, 25-26, 2-32, 38, 49, 52-54); and
control the electric motor (300) using the AC output voltage generated by the inverter (110).
Claim Rejections – 35 USC § 103
7. 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.
8. Claims 2, 9-10, 12 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over AJIMA et al. (US 20190363646 A1) in view of KREFTA (See US 20140350871 A1).
In regards to claims 2 and 20, AJIMA shows (Figs. 1-7) and discloses wherein the trapezoidal wave modulating signal is capable of achieving a modulation index for the inverter (100) but does not explicitly disclose to be greater than one.
However, KREFTA discloses wherein the trapezoidal wave modulating signal is capable of achieving a modulation index for the inverter (10) greater than one (i.e. greater than a threshold indicating that the inverter is being over-driven or operated in a non-linear region (pars. 5, 19-20, 23).
Hence, giving the reaching of KREFTA it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the circuit/system of AJIMA in order to employ to judge a modulation index for the inverter be greater than one so to determine a correction factor as indication of over-modulation, consequently improving the system control accuracy and reliability.
In regards to claims 9 and 19, AJIMA shows (Figs. 1-7) and discloses wherein the control system is further configured to compare, for each of the three phases, the trapezoidal wave modulating signal to the carrier signal to determine the respective PWM signal (see par. 23 and Fig. 2, i.e. a modulated wave (modulated wave 3) having a trapezoidal shape obtained by linearly approximating the sine wave modulation, a modulated wave (modulated wave 4) in a square wave state providing a maximum inverter output, and a carrier signal compared to the modulated wave signal in its magnitude to generate a PWM pulse. FIG. 2(b) is a PWM pulse signal of the modulated wave 2, and FIG. 2(c) is a PWM pulse signal of the modulated wave 3).
In regards to claims 10 and 20. AJIMA shows (Figs. 1-7) and discloses wherein the carrier signal is a triangular wave signal (see par. 39)
Allowable Subject Matter
9. Claims 3-8 and 13-18 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.
Related Prior Arts
10. The following related prior arts made of record are considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure to further show the general state of the art and may be applied alone or in combination for rejection of the claims.
HARA et al. (US 12074551 B2) discloses a current control unit configured to generate a voltage command in accordance with a torque command; a carrier wave generation unit configured to generate a carrier wave; a carrier wave frequency adjusting unit configured to adjust a frequency of the carrier wave; and a gate signal generation unit configured to perform pulse width modulation of the voltage command based on the carrier wave, so as to generate a gate signal to control an operation of the power converter, wherein the carrier wave frequency adjusting unit adjusts the frequency of the carrier wave, so as to change a phase difference between a phase of the voltage command and a phase of the carrier wave, and the current control unit corrects an amplitude of the voltage command and the phase of the voltage command based on the phase of the carrier wave, when a modulation rate in accordance with a voltage amplitude ratio between the direct current power and the alternating current power exceeds a predetermined value.
Ajima et al. (US 10826410 B2) discloses FIG. 4(A) illustrates a case where the PWM pulse is turned on in the first half of the triangle wave carrier, that is, in the rising edge of the triangle wave carrier signal, according to the phase relationship between the modulated wave and the triangle wave carrier. A signal waveform of FIG. 4(A) is referred to as a signal waveform of zero cross timing 1. FIG. 4(B) illustrates a case where the PWM pulse is turned on in the second half of the triangle wave carrier, that is, in the falling edge of the triangle wave carrier signal according to the phase relationship between the modulated wave and the triangle wave carrier. The signal waveform of FIG. 4(B) is referred to as a signal waveform of zero cross timing 2.
Conclusion
11. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JORGE L CARRASQUILLO whose telephone number is (571)270-7879. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Friday (9am to 5pm).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Eduardo Colon-Santana can be reached on (571) 272-2060. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JORGE L CARRASQUILLO/Primary Examiner Engineer, Art Unit 2837
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