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 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.
Claim 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 18 recites the limitation “wherein each isolating transformer includes a winding coupled to the power transmission line through the at least one switching network.” However, claim 18 is dependent on claim 17, which recites the limitation “wherein each isolating transformer includes a winding coupled directly to the power transmission line.”
The limitation recited in claim 18 directly contradicts the limitation recited in claim 17. Specifically, the winding cannot be both directly coupled to the power transmission line and coupled through the switching network to the power transmission line.
Because claim 18 recites a limitation that directly contradicts a limitation in parent claim 17, claim 18 fails to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
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 1-13 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schauder et al. (US 5,734,257; “Schauder”) in view of Duan et al. (US 2023/0081157; “Duan”).
Regarding claim 1, Schauder teaches a power system (figure 1) including:
a first converter (parallel inverter 22) configured to be coupled in parallel with a power transmission line (34), the first converter (22) including a plurality of shunt sub-modules (28) configured to be coupled in to the power transmission line (34);
a second converter (series inverter 24) configured to be coupled in series with the power transmission line (34), the second converter (24) including a plurality of series sub-modules (28) coupled in parallel with each other; and
a common DC bus (across 26) coupled to the first converter (22) and the second converter (24).
Schauder fails to teach the plurality of shunt sub-modules coupled in series between the power transmission line and a reference node.
However, it is well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art to configure an AC/DC converter with a plurality of shunt sub-modules coupled in series between an input transmission line and a reference node. For example, see figure 1 of Duan.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to embody the first AC/DC converter of Schauder with an AC/DC converter structure including a plurality of shunt sub-modules coupled in series between the power transmission line and a reference node because such a modification would have been a replacement with a well-known AC/DC converter circuit configuration.
As for claim 2, Schauder teaches at least one controller (40) coupled to the first converter (22) and the second converter (24) and being configured to control at least one of the first converter (22) or the second converter (24) to buck a voltage on the power transmission line (Col. 1, lines 49-50 and Col. 2, lines 12-19).
As for claim 3, Schauder teaches the second converter (24) having an adjustable magnitude (col. 1, lines 49-50), but fails to expressly teach wherein the at least one controller is configured to control the second converter to buck the voltage on the power transmission line.
However, it is well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art to configure an AC/DC converter as a buck converter or a boost converter to adjust a magnitude of a voltage input to the AC/DC converter.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to embody the second AC/DC converter of Schauder as a buck AC/DC converter or a boost AC/DC converter because such a modification would have been exercising a well-known operation of an AC/DC converter.
As for claim 4, Schauder teaches at least one controller (40) coupled to the first converter (22) and the second converter (24) and being configured to control at least one of the first converter (22) or the second converter (24) to boost a voltage on the power transmission line (Col. 1, lines 49-50 and Col. 2, lines 12-19).
As for claim 5, Schauder teaches the second converter (24) having an adjustable magnitude (col. 1, lines 49-50), but fails to expressly teach wherein the at least one controller is configured to control the second converter to boost the voltage on the power transmission line.
However, it is well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art to configure an AC/DC converter as a buck converter or a boost converter to adjust a magnitude of a voltage input to the AC/DC converter.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to embody the second AC/DC converter of Schauder as a buck AC/DC converter or a boost AC/DC converter because such a modification would have been exercising a well-known operation of an AC/DC converter.
Regarding claim 6, Schauder teaches at least one controller (40) coupled to the first converter (22) and the second converter (24) and being configured to control at least one of the first converter (22) or the second converter (24) to inject reactive power to the power transmission line (Col. 1, lines 46-48 and Col. 2, lines 2-5).
Regarding claim 7, Schauder teaches at least one controller (40) coupled to the first converter (22) and the second converter (24) and being configured to control at least one of the first converter (22) or the second converter (24) to absorb reactive power from the power transmission line (Col. 1, lines 46-48 and Col. 2, lines 2-5).
Regarding claim 8, Schauder teaches at least one controller (40) coupled to the first converter (22) and the second converter (24) and being configured to control at least one of the first converter (22) or the second converter (24) to inject active power to the power transmission line (Col. 1, line 66 through Col. 2, line 2).
Regarding claim 9, Schauder teaches at least one controller (40) coupled to the first converter (22) and the second converter (24) and being configured to control at least one of the first converter (22) or the second converter (24) to absorb active power from the power transmission line (Col. 1, line 66 through Col. 2, line 2).
As for claim 10, Schauder teaches at least one controller (40) coupled to the first converter (22) and the second converter (24) and being configured to control at least one of the first converter (22) or the second converter (24) to adjust a phase angle between a voltage and a current on the power transmission line (Col. 1, lines 49-50, 55-65. Col. 2, lines 6-8 and 49-52).
Regarding claims 11 and 12, Schauder modified by Duan teaches wherein each shunt sub-module of the plurality of shunt sub-modules includes a respective isolated bi-directional AC/DC converter including an isolating transformer (See the structure of the bi-directional AC/DC converter in figure 1 of Duan).
As for claim for claim 13, Schauder teaches the power system of claim 12, as detailed above, but fails to teach wherein the isolating transformer includes a solid-state transformer.
However, it is well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art to embody an isolating transformer with a solid-state transformer.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to embody the isolating transformer of Schauder as a solid-state transformer because such a modification would have been a replacement with a well-known isolating transformer device.
Regarding claim 19, the method as recited in the claim is inherently present in the structure discussed above in the rejection of claim 1.
Claims 14-18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schauder in view of Duan and Sahoo et al. (US 11,539,231; “Sahoo”).
Regarding claims 14 and 15, Schauder teaches the power system of claim 1, but fails to teach wherein each series sub-module of the plurality of series sub-modules includes a respective isolated bi-directional AC/DC converter including an isolating transformer.
However, it is well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art to configure an AC/DC converter with a plurality of shunt sub-modules each forming a respective isolated bi-directional AC/DC converter including an isolating transformer. For example, see figure 5 of Sahoo.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to embody the second AC/DC converter of Schauder with a plurality of shunt sub-modules each forming a respective isolated bi-directional AC/DC converter including an isolating transformer because such a modification would have been a replacement with a well-known AC/DC converter circuit configuration.
As for claim for claim 16, Schauder teaches the power system of claim 15, as detailed above, but fails to teach wherein the isolating transformer includes a solid-state transformer.
However, it is well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art to embody an isolating transformer with a solid-state transformer.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to embody the isolating transformer of Schauder as a solid-state transformer because such a modification would have been a replacement with a well-known isolating transformer device.
Regarding claim 17, Schauder teaches the power system of claim 16, as detailed above, but fails to teach wherein each isolating transformer includes a winding coupled directly to the power transmission line.
However, it is well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art to configure a DC/AC converter with an isolating transformer winding at the output of the DC/AC converter.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to embody the second DC/AC converter of Schauder with an isolating transformer winding at the output of the DC/AC converter because such a modification would have been a replacement with a well-known DC/AC converter circuit configuration.
Regarding claim 18, Schauder in view of Sahoo teaches wherein each series sub-module of the plurality of series sub-modules further includes at least one switching network, and wherein each isolating transformer includes a winding coupled to the power transmission line through the at least one switching network (See configuration in figure 5 of Sahoo).
Regarding claim 20, Schauder teaches executing the control strategy (Col. 1, lines 36-38) of claim 20 (see rejection of claim 1 above) with a processor (40), but fails to expressly teach the processor-executed control strategy being stored on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium storing thereon sequences of computer-executable instructions.
However, it is well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art to provide executable computer readable instructions for controlling a power converter system. For example, see figure 9 of Sahoo.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to place the method instructions of Schauder on a non-transitory, computer-readable medium because such a modification would have been merely exercising a well-known application of a control method for a power converter system.
Conclusion
The prior art references made of record and not relied upon teach power converter systems, comprising: parallel power converters, serial power converters, power transmission lines, DC buses, and bi-directional AC/DC converters including controllable switches and isolating transformers.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LEVI GANNON whose telephone number is (571)272-7971. The examiner can normally be reached 7:00AM-4:30PM.
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/LEVI GANNON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2836 June 12, 2026
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