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 § 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 1-5, 8-9, and 11-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nasr Azadani et al. (US 2025/0226669; “Nasr Azadani”; reference of record) in view of Kelly et al. (US 2024/0213781; “Kelly”; reference of record”).
Regarding claim 1, Nasr Azadani teaches a distributed small-scale reactor power system (figure 6) comprising:
a first set of small-scale reactors (five microreactors 640 with respective conversion generators 642) configured to supply power to a datacenter (630); and
a set of power converters (five transformers in figure 6), wherein:
each small-scale reactor (five microreactors 640 with respective conversion generators 642) is operatively coupled to:
a respective power converter (one of the transformers in figure 6); and
one or more additional power converters of the set of power converters (five transformers in figure 6); and
each power converter (five transformers in figure 6) is operatively coupled to the data center (630).
Nasr Azadani fails to expressly teach the datacenter comprising a plurality of IT ("Information Technology') racks.
However, it is well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art to utilize IT racks in datacenters. For example, see para. [0075] and [0077] of Kelly.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize IT racks in the datacenters of Nasr Azadani because such a modification would have been exercising a well-known datacenter configuration.
As for claim 2, Nasr Azadani teaches wherein: the small-scale reactors are configured in a ring topology to provide redundant AC power (transformers operate with AC power) to the power converters (See parallel connection of reactors in figure 6); and
each of the power converters is configured to receive AC power from two or more of the small-scale reactors and provide DC ("Direct Current') power (DC power is used to charge the batteries in the datacenter of figure 6).
As for claim 3, Nasr Azadani teaches wherein the first set of small-scale reactors comprises one of a plurality of sets of small-scale reactors and the plurality of sets of small-scale reactors is configured in a ring topology to provide redundant power to a plurality of datacenters (See parallel connection of reactors in figure 6).
Regarding claim 4, Nasr Azadani teaches wherein: each of the first set of small-scale reactors is coupled to a grid-based generator (610) and is configured to synchronize a frequency of a power supply generated by the small-scale reactor to a frequency of a power supply generated by the grid-based generator (para. [0051]).
As for claim 5, Nasr Azadani teaches wherein each of the first set of small-scale reactors is configured for grid forming, including providing voltage and frequency support to a microgrid of the datacenter (Para. [0051]).
As for claim 8, Nasr Azadani teaches heat storage (654) configured to capture and store heat generated from the set of small-scale reactors (para. [0046]).
Regarding claim 9, Nasr Azadani teaches an apparatus (figure 6) for managing availability in a datacenter (630) that is provided power by a power converter of a set of power converters (five transformers in figure 6), each power converter receives power from at least one of a set of small-scale reactors (five microreactors 640 with respective conversion generators 642), and each small-scale reactor of the set of small-scale reactors (five microreactors 640 with respective conversion generators 642) is operatively coupled to a respective power converter of the set of power converters (transformers) and one or more additional power converters of the set of power converters (transformers), wherein the apparatus comprises:
a processing device (656); and
a memory device (program for 656) operatively coupled to the processing device, where the processing device is configured to:
monitor operation of each small-scale reactor of the set of small-scale reactors (para. [0047]-[0049]); and
manage the small-scale reactors based on the monitored operation (para. [0047]-[0049]).
Nasr Azadani fails to expressly teach the datacenter comprising a plurality of IT ("Information Technology') racks.
However, it is well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art to utilize IT racks in datacenters. For example, see para. [0075] and [0077] of Kelly.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize IT racks in the datacenters of Nasr Azadani because such a modification would have been exercising a well-known datacenter configuration.
As for claim 11, Nasr Azadani teaches wherein the processing device is further configured to: detect load on each small-scale reactor of the set of small-scale reactors; and control power supplied by at least one small-scale reactor of the set of small-scale reactors based on the detected load (Para. [0040] and [0070] teach detecting load changes and implementing necessary load management.).
As for claim 12, Nasr Azadani teaches wherein the set of small-scale reactors is coupled to an electrical grid (610) and configured to provide excess power to the electrical grid (610), and the processing device is further configured to:
detect load on each small-scale reactor of the set of small-scale reactors; and control power supplied by at least one small-scale reactor of the set of small-scale reactors based on the detected load and an amount of excess power to provide to the grid (Para. [0040] and [0070] teach detecting load changes and implementing necessary load management.).
As for claim 13, Nasr Azadani teaches wherein: the small-scale reactors are configured in a ring topology to provide redundant AC power (transformers operate with AC power) to the power converters (See parallel connection of reactors in figure 6); and
each of the power converters is configured to receive AC power from two or more of the small-scale reactors and provide DC ("Direct Current') power (DC power is used to charge the batteries in the datacenter of figure 6).
As for claim 14, Nasr Azadani teaches wherein the first set of small-scale reactors comprises one of a plurality of sets of small-scale reactors and the plurality of sets of small-scale reactors is configured in a ring topology to provide redundant power to a plurality of datacenters (See parallel connection of reactors in figure 6).
Regarding claim 15, Nasr Azadani teaches (figure 6) a method comprising:
supplying, by each small-scale reactor of a first set of small-scale reactors (five microreactors 640 with respective conversion generators 642), AC ('Alternating Current') power to at least one power converter of a plurality of power converters (five transformers in figure 6), wherein each small-scale reactor is operatively coupled to:
a respective power converter (one of the transformers in figure 6); and
one or more additional power converters of the plurality of power converters (five transformers in figure 6);
converting, by each power converter, the AC power to DC ('Direct Current') power (required for batteries connected to each UPS); and
providing, by each power converter (transformers), the DC power to a datacenter (630).
Nasr Azadani fails to expressly teach the datacenter comprising a plurality of IT ("Information Technology') racks.
However it is well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art to utilize IT racks in datacenters. For example, see para. [0075] and [0077] of Kelly.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize IT racks in the datacenters of Nasr Azadani because such a modification would have been exercising a well-known datacenter configuration.
As for claim 16, Nasr Azadani teaches wherein: the small-scale reactors are configured in a ring topology to provide redundant AC power (transformers operate with AC power) to the power converters (See parallel connection of reactors in figure 6); and
each of the power converters is configured to receive AC power from two or more of the small-scale reactors and provide DC ("Direct Current') power (DC power is used to charge the batteries in the datacenter of figure 6).
As for claim 17, Nasr Azadani teaches wherein the first set of small-scale reactors comprises one of a plurality of sets of small-scale reactors and the plurality of sets of small-scale reactors is configured in a ring topology to provide redundant power to a plurality of datacenters (See parallel connection of reactors in figure 6).
Regarding claim 18, Nasr Azadani teaches wherein: each of the first set of small-scale reactors is coupled to a grid-based generator (610) and is configured to synchronize a frequency of a power supply generated by the small-scale reactor to a frequency of a power supply generated by the grid-based generator (para. [0051]).
As for claim 19, Nasr Azadani teaches wherein each of the first set of small-scale reactors is configured for grid forming, including providing voltage and frequency support to a microgrid of the datacenter (Para. [0051]).
As for claim 20, Nasr Azadani teaches storing heat (in 654) generated from the set of small-scale reactors (para. [0046]).
Claims 6 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nasr Azadani in view of Kelly and Stiedl et al. (US 2023/0418348; "Stiedl"; reference of record).
Regarding claim 6, Nasr Azadani teaches wherein at least one of the power converters comprises a transformer (Para. [0040]).
Nasr Azadani fails to teach wherein the transformer is a solid-state transformer.
However it is well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art to utilize a solid-state transformer in a datacenter power system. For example, see figure 1 of Stiedl.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize a solid-state transformer in the datacenter power system of Nasr Azadani because such a modification would have been implementing a well-known transformer device.
As for claim 7, Nasr Azadani teaches wherein each solid-state transformer is coupled to a power storage device (battery connected to each UPS) configured to mitigate transient output power (Para. [0041]).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nasr Azadani in view of Kelly and Ballantine et al. (US 2013/0163193; "Ballantine"; reference of record).
As for claim 10, Nasr Azadani teaches the apparatus of claim 9, as detailed above, but fails to teach wherein the processing device is further configured to: identify a scheduled outage of one of the set of the small-scale reactors; and notify a workload management system of the scheduled outage, including instructing the workload management system to shed load on one or more IT racks supplied power by the small- scale reactor scheduled for outage.
However it is well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art to control IT loads of a datacenter according to scheduled power generation/consumption For example, see para. [0119] and [0120] of Ballantine.
skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to control the datacenter power system of Nasr Azadani according to a schedule because such a modification would have been exercising a well-known datacenter power system control protocol.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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 August 24, 2026
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