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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Invention I in the reply filed on 8/24/2026
is acknowledged.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/6/24 has been considered by the examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
A title such as the following is suggested: Power Supply Device with a Load Sensor.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-8 are objected to because of the following informalities: in claim 1, lines 11-12, “to the sensing current input to the load sensor” lacks antecedent basis and should be ‘to a sensing current input of the load sensor’.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Mishima (US 2023/0179077).
With respect to claim 1, Mishima discloses a power supply device (Fig. 1 10,L1,C1,Rs,C2,Rb1,Rb2) comprising: a voltage conversion circuit (Fig. 1 M1,M2,L1,C1,Rs,C2) including at least one switch device (Fig. 1 M1) configured to operate in response to a control signal (Fig. 1 output of 12A), and the voltage conversion circuit configured to: receive an input voltage (Fig. 1 VIN), and generate an output voltage (Fig. 1 VOUT), higher or lower (Fig. 1 VOUT < VIN) than the input voltage, depending on a duty ratio (Fig. 1 Vout/Vin = duty ratio of M1) of the control signal; and a controller (Fig. 1 11-15) configured to change the duty ratio (Fig. 1 duty ratio changed according to the difference between VFB and reference voltage) of the control signal to adjust a level of the output voltage (Fig. 2(C) VOLTAGE BETWEEN OUT1-OUT2), the controller including: a load sensor (Fig. 1 Rs, Fig. 3 44) configured to detect a sensing current (Fig. 1 current through Rs) from the at least one switch device (Fig. 1 Rs detect series current from M1), and a current compensation unit (Fig. 1 Ibias,SW1) configured to apply a compensation current (Fig.1 Ibias) to the sensing current input (Fig. 1 SENSP) to the load sensor during a transition period (Fig. 2 T1) in which the output voltage changes from a first level (Fig. 2 (C) voltage 0 at start of T1) to a second level (Fig. 2(C) voltage at the end of T1).
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.
Claim(s) 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mishima (US 2023/0179077) in view of Zhou (US 9,276,470).
With respect to claim 2, Mishima discloses the power supply device of claim 1, as set forth above with a single DC-DC converter as shown in Figure 1 and does not disclose first and second DC-DC converters in a master-slave configuration. The use of converters in a master-slave configuration was well known before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Zhou discloses wherein a voltage conversion circuit includes: a first DC-DC converter (Fig. 8A Master Phase) configured to operate as a master device, and a second DC-DC converter (Fig. 8A Slave Phases) configured to operate as a slave device. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement wherein the voltage conversion circuit includes: a first DC-DC converter configured to operate as a master device, and a second DC-DC converter configured to operate as a slave device, and wherein an activation state of the first DC-DC converter and an activation state of the second DC-DC converter while the output voltage of the first level (as in Fig. 2C voltage between T1 and T2) is output are equal to an activation state (in combination, as in Mishima Fig. 2A enabled between T1 and T2) of the first DC-DC converter and an activation state (in combination, as in Fig. 2A enabled during T1 ) of the second DC-DC converter during the transition period, respectively, in order to increase the current capability of the voltage conversion circuit by using the master-slave configuration.
Claim(s) 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mishima (US 2023/0179077) in view of Biziitu (US 2018/0375434).
With respect to claim 5, Mishima discloses the power supply device of claim 1 as set forth above, and remains silent as to the type of capacitor. The use of multilayer ceramic capacitors as output capacitors in power supply devices was well known before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Biziitu discloses wherein the voltage conversion circuit includes: an output capacitor (Fig. 1 17) connected to an output terminal (Fig. 1 12) of the voltage conversion circuit (Fig. 1 10), and the output capacitor including a multilayer ceramic capacitor (paragraph 68). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement wherein the voltage conversion circuit includes: an output capacitor connected to an output terminal of the voltage conversion circuit, and the output capacitor including a multilayer ceramic capacitor, in order to be able to provide a fast response by implementing a low equivalent series resistance.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-4 and 6-8 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. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
With respect to claim 3, the prior art does not disclose or suggest, in combination with the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims, primarily, wherein, when an absolute value of the first level is smaller than an absolute value of the second level, the power supply device is configured such that the controller subtracts the compensation current from the sensing current during the transition period.
With respect to claim 4, the prior art does not disclose or suggest, in combination with the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims, primarily, wherein, when an absolute value of the first level is greater than an absolute value of the second level, the power supply device is configured such that the controller adds the compensation current to the sensing current during the transition period.
With respect to claim 6, the prior art does not disclose or suggest, in combination with the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims, primarily, wherein the transition period includes a plurality of sub-periods, and wherein the power supply device is configured such that the controller applies: a first compensation current to the sensing current in a first sub-period of the plurality of sub-periods, and a second compensation current of a magnitude, different from a magnitude of the first compensation current, to the sensing current in a second sub-period of the plurality of sub-periods after the first sub-period.
The aforementioned limitations in combination with all remaining limitations of the respective claims are believed to render the aforementioned indicated claim and any dependent claims thereof patentable over the art of record.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HARRY RAYMOND BEHM whose telephone number is (571)272-8929. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 8-5 EST.
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/HARRY R BEHM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838
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