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 Objections
Claims 8, 14, 17 and 18 are objected to because of the following informalities: the term “by” in line 3 in claim 8 should be re-written as “based on” because a temperature variation only depends on two variables in claim 8 whereas claim 9 additionally introduces “a coolant flow rate correction constant” to determine the temperature variation. Claims 17 and 18 have similar issues. Additionally, the phrase “determine” in line 5 in claim 14 should be re-written as “determining” Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-19 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. The phrase “at least one power module including at least one switch and includes a top switch and a bottom switch….and a changeover switch” in lines 2-4 in claim 1 is confusing because the claim first introduces “at least one switch” and then separately discloses three switches (top, bottom and changeover). It’s unclear whether three switches are the “at least one switch” or additional switches. Claim 11 has the same issue. The phrase “a transistor loss or a diode loss” in lines 5 in claim 6 is also confusing because claim 1 requires “a total power loss” and it’s not clear whether “a transistor loss or a diode loss” is already a part of the total power loss or additional loss. Claim 7 also mentions “transistor losses” which has similar issues as claim 6. Claims 15 and 16 have similar issues.
It’s unclear whether claim 19 is intended as an apparatus claim improperly depending on a method claim 18.
REASONS FOR ALLOWANCE
Allowable Subject Matter
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Claims 1-19 are allowed.
Upon further consideration and in a view of the limitation, the prior art does not explicitly teach or fairly suggest alone or in combination of “and a controller configured to determine a power loss of each of the top switch, the bottom switch, and the changeover switch based on the motor driving mode and an operation state of the motor to obtain a total power loss of the at least one power module, and determine a temperature of the at least one power module based on the total power loss” in claim 1. Claim 11 is allowable for the same reason.
Claims 1-19 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Hasan et al. (US 10,337,930 B2) disclose online IGBT junction temperature estimation.
KASHIWAZAKI et al. (US 2021/0257953 A1) disclose a drive system having a differential winding.
ZHANG et al. (US 2023/0208281 A1) disclose a diagnostic system for an inverter module using power losses.
Geyer (US 2023/0299662 A1) discloses an arrangement including a thermal model.
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/BICKEY DHAKAL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837
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