DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to the application filed on 12/18/2024. Claims 1-9 are pending.
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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Drawing
The drawing submitted on 12/18/2024 is acknowledged and accepted by the examiner.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 03/10/2025 has been considered by the examiner.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2, 5, 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and/or (a)(2) as being anticipated by KARLSSON et al. (US Patent or PG Pub. No. 20180048235, hereinafter ‘235).
Claim 1, ‘235 teaches a power converter including a coil (e.g., X1, see Fig. 3, 6) comprising: a detection coil (e.g., X2) that is magnetically coupled to the coil; a detection resistor (e.g., R3) and a detection capacitor (e.g., Cf) that are connected in series to each other and in parallel to the detection coil; and a detection circuit that detects a current flowing through the coil based on a voltage across the detection capacitor (e.g., Vf being function of the primary current through X1, see Equation 10, [0015][[0017][0025], Fig. 3, 6).
Claim 2, ‘235 teaches the limitations of claim 1 as discussed above. It further teaches that wherein the coil is a smoothing coil by which the current flowing in the power converter is smoothed (e.g., X1 and Cp forming an output filter to the output voltage Vp, see Fig. 3, 6).
Claim 5, ‘235 teaches the limitations of claim 1 as discussed above. It further teaches that wherein in a case where the number of turns of the coil represents N1 and the number of turns of the detection coil represents N2, N2/N1 is equal to or less than 10 (e.g., see [0008]).
Claim 9, ‘235 teaches a current detection circuit for detecting a current flowing through a coil provided in a power converter (e.g., X1, see Fig. 3, 6), the current detection circuit comprising: a detection coil (e.g., X2) that is magnetically coupled to the coil; a detection resistor (e.g., R3) and a detection capacitor (e.g., Cf) that are connected in series to each other and in parallel to the detection coil; and a detection circuit that detects a current flowing through the coil based on a voltage across the detection capacitor (e.g., Vf being function of the primary current through X1, see Equation 10, [0015][[0017][0025], Fig. 3, 6).
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1,148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating
obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims under 35 U.S.C. 103(a), the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned at the time any inventions covered therein were made absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and invention dates of each claim that was not commonly owned at the time a later invention was made in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 103(c) and potential 35 U.S.C. 102(e), (f) or (g) prior art under 35 U.S.C. 103(a).
Claims 3, 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over KARLSSON et al. (US Patent or PG Pub. No. 20180048235, hereinafter ‘235), in view of Abu Qahouq (US Patent or PG Pub. No. 20180337532, hereinafter ‘532).
Claim 3, ‘235 teaches the limitations of claim 1 as discussed above. ‘235 does not explicitly disclose that wherein the smoothing coil has a core, and the detection coil is formed by being wound around the core.
‘532 discloses power converter with a power magnetic device as its output inductor (e.g., L, see Fig. 7-9). It further discloses that the power magnetic device (i.e., L) includes a magnetic sheet or core (e.g., see [0021][0067]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention was made to modify the converter to include the power magnetic device with core as disclosed in ‘532 in order to improve inductance and coupling between the primary side and the secondary side acting as a transformer (e.g., see [0068]).
Claim 4, the combination of ‘235 and ‘532 teaches the limitations of claim 3 as discussed above. ‘235 does not explicitly disclose that wherein the smoothing coil has a core, and the detection coil is formed by being wound around the core.
‘532 further discloses that the power magnetic device includes a gap (e.g., see [0022][0067]).
‘532 reads the same obviousness as discussed in the claim 3 rejection above.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over KARLSSON et al. (US Patent or PG Pub. No. 20180048235, hereinafter ‘235), in view of Kim (US Patent or PG Pub. No. 20080036394, hereinafter ‘394).
Claim 7, ‘235 teaches the limitations of claim 2 as discussed above. ‘235 does not explicitly disclose that wherein the primary winding of the current sensing transformer is disposed on at least one of main surfaces of a printed circuit board on which the power converter is mounted, and the secondary winding for detecting the current is arranged relative to the smoothing coil in a thickness direction of the printed circuit board.
‘394 discloses power converter with a current sensing transformer (e.g., 540, see Fig. 1-5) and further discloses that wherein the primary winding (e.g., 542) of the current sensing transformer is disposed on at least one of main surfaces of a printed circuit board on which the power converter is mounted (e.g., see Fig. 1A), and the secondary winding (e.g., 543) for detecting the current is arranged relative to the primary winding in a thickness direction of the printed circuit board (e.g., see Fig. 1-5).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention was made to modify the converter to include the PCB based current sensing transformer as disclosed in ‘394 in order to reduce the number of components and to simplify a manufacturing process (e.g., see [0008]).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over KARLSSON et al. (US Patent or PG Pub. No. 20180048235, hereinafter ‘235), in view of Kim (US Patent or PG Pub. No. 20080036394, hereinafter ‘394), further in view of Shu Yuen Hui et al. (US Patent or PG Pub. No. 20030095027, hereinafter ‘027).
Claim 8, the combination of ‘235 and ‘532 teaches the limitations of claim 3 as discussed above. None of ‘235 nor ‘532 explicitly disclose that wherein the printed circuit board is a multilayer printed circuit board, and the detection coil is disposed on an inner layer of the printed circuit board as a wiring pattern.
‘027 discloses a printed circuit board transformer (e.g., see Fig. 3-8), and further discloses that wherein the printed circuit board is a multilayer printed circuit board, and the secondary winding is disposed on an inner layer of the printed circuit board as a wiring pattern (e.g., see Fig. 3-8).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention was made to modify the converter to include the printed circuit-board transformer as disclosed in ‘027 in order to be able to effectively shield the magnetic field generated from the PCB transformer (e.g., see [0062]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 6 is 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 matters:
For claim 6, the closet prior art (which has been made of record) fail to disclose (by themselves or in combination): “two offset resistors that are connected between a constant voltage source and a reference potential of the detection circuit in series to each other, wherein the two offset resistors offset the voltage across the detection capacitor by a difference between an electric potential at a node between the two offset resistors and the reference potential of the detection circuit”.
Examiner's Note:
Examiner has cited particular columns and line numbers in the references applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in their entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
In the case of amending the claimed invention, Applicant is respectfully requested to indicate the portion(s) of the specification which dictate(s) the structure relied on for proper interpretation and also to verify and ascertain the metes and bounds of the claimed invention.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUE ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1263. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F: 8:30AM-5:00PM
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Monica Lewis can be reached on 571-272-2838. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JUE ZHANG/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838
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