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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy of CN202311832245.6 filed on 12/27/2023 has NOT been received/retrieved by the office.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/26/2024 has been considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1-3, 12-15 and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by machine translation of CN109831843A hereinafter “Yang”
Regarding claim 1, Yang discloses a control circuit for a light emitting element driving circuit (Page.2 L9: a light-emitting device driving device), comprising:
an analog dimming terminal (Page.2 L21: an analog dimming) configured to receive an analog dimming signal (Page.2 L17-18: a dimming control circuit for receiving a dimming signal); and
a driving terminal configured to provide a switching control signal having an operating frequency (Page.2 L16-17: a logic driving circuit for a pulse modulation signal to generate a switch control signal for controlling the power switch) to a switching converter circuit (Page.2 L10: a power switch), wherein the switching converter circuit is configured to
provide an output current (Page.2L17: the power switch to generate the output current) to a light emitting element (Page.2 L11: output current for driving a light emitting element circuit); and wherein
the control circuit is configured to
receive the analog dimming signal and to adjust the operating frequency of the switching control signal based on the analog dimming signal, and the operating frequency when the analog dimming signal is at a first dimming reference (Page.2 L18-23: dimming signal exceeds a first dimming threshold, the switch control signal corresponds to the first pulse modulation signal) is lower (Page.2 L18-23: a frequency of the second pulse modulated signal is lower than a frequency of the first pulsed modulated signal) than the operating frequency when the analog dimming signal is at a second dimming reference (Page.2 L18-23: dimming signal does not exceed the first dimming threshold, the level is generated according to a second pulsed modulated signal), wherein
the first dimming reference (Page.2 L18-23: dimming signal exceed a first dimming threshold) is greater than the second diming reference (Page.2 L18-23: dimming signal does not exceed the first dimming threshold).
Regarding claim 2, Yang discloses the control circuit of claim 1, wherein
when the analog dimming signal is greater than the first dimming reference, the operating frequency is at a first fixed value. (Page.5 L10-14: the modulation circuit may be a fixed frequency; Page.6 L1-3: the frequency of the PWM may be 1Kz and PWM1 may be 100Khz)
Regarding claim 3, Yang discloses the control circuit of claim 2, wherein
when the analog dimming signal is less than the second dimming reference, the operating frequency is at a second fixed value (Page.5 L10-14: the modulation circuit may be a fixed frequency) , wherein the first fixed value is less than the second fixed value. (Page.5 L52-53 – Page.6 L1: the frequency of the second pulse modulation signal PWM2 is lower than the frequency of the first pulse signal PWM1; Page.6 L1-3: the frequency of the PWM may be 1Kz and PWM1 may be 100Khz)
Regarding claim 12, Yang discloses a light emitting element driving circuit (Page.2 L9: a light-emitting device driving device), comprising:
a switching converter circuit (Page.2 L10: a power switch) configured to provide an output current to a light emitting element (Page.2 L11: output current for driving a light emitting element circuit); and
a control circuit (Page.2 L12: the switching control circuit) comprising:
an analog dimming terminal (Page.2 L21: an analog dimming) configured to receive an analog dimming signal (Page.2 L17-18: a dimming control circuit for receiving a dimming signal); and
a driving terminal configured to provide a switching control signal having an operating frequency (Page.2 L16-17: a logic driving circuit for a pulse modulation signal to generate a switch control signal for controlling the power switch) to the switching converter circuit (Page.2 L10: a power switch) and wherein
the control circuit is configured to
receive the analog dimming signal and to adjust the operating frequency of the switching control signal based on the analog dimming signal, and the operating frequency when the analog dimming signal is at a first dimming reference (Page.2 L18-23: dimming signal exceeds a first dimming threshold, the switch control signal corresponds to the first pulse modulation signal) is lower (Page.2 L18-23: a frequency of the second pulse modulated signal is lower than a frequency of the first pulsed modulated signal) than the operating frequency when the analog dimming signal is at a second dimming reference (Page.2 L18-23: dimming signal does not exceed the first dimming threshold, the level is generated according to a second pulsed modulated signal), wherein
the first dimming reference (Page.2 L18-23: dimming signal exceed a first dimming threshold) is greater than the second diming reference (Page.2 L18-23: dimming signal does not exceed the first dimming threshold).
Regarding claim 13, Yang discloses the light emitting element driving circuit of claim 12, wherein
when the analog dimming signal is greater than the first dimming reference, the operating frequency is at a first fixed value. (Page.5 L10-14: the modulation circuit may be a fixed frequency; Page.6 L1-3: the frequency of the PWM may be 1Kz and PWM1 may be 100Khz)
Regarding claim 14, Yang discloses the light emitting element driving circuit of claim 13, wherein
when the analog dimming signal is less than the second dimming reference, the operating frequency is at a second fixed value (Page.5 L10-14: the modulation circuit may be a fixed frequency) , wherein the first fixed value is less than the second fixed value. (Page.5 L52-53 – Page.6 L1: the frequency of the second pulse modulation signal PWM2 is lower than the frequency of the first pulse signal PWM1; Page.6 L1-3: the frequency of the PWM may be 1Kz and PWM1 may be 100Khz)
Regarding claim 15, Yang discloses the light emitting element driving circuit of claim 12, wherein the switching converter circuit comprises:
a first power switch coupled between an input terminal and a switching terminal of the switching converter circuit; a second power switch coupled between the switching terminal and a reference ground; and an energy storage device coupled between the switching terminal and an output terminal of the switching converter circuit (as shown in Fig.8C for example); and wherein
the first power switch is turned on and turned off based on the switching control signal provided by the control circuit. (Page.2 L26-29: the power switch wherein the output current corresponds to the pulse modulation signal)
Regarding claims 16-19, the claim recites similar limitations as claims 1-3 and 12-15, except in method form, thus rejected in the same manner as claims 1-3 and 12-15.
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 for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 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.
Claims 4 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang in view of US2010/0084991A1 hereinafter “Liu”
Regarding claim 4, Yang discloses the control circuit of claim 1, wherein:
when the light emitting element driving circuit operates in an analog dimming mode, the control circuit is configured to provide the switching control signal based on the analog dimming signal. (Page.2 L16-17: a logic driving circuit for a pulse modulation signal to generate a switch control signal for controlling the power switch)
Yang does not explicitly disclose:
a pulse dimming terminal configured to receive a pulse dimming signal; wherein when the light emitting element driving circuit operates in a hybrid dimming mode, the control circuit is configured to provide the switching control signal based on the analog dimming signal and the pulse dimming signal
Liu discloses a dimming control circuit wherein both a pulse dimming input and analog dimming input is used to control the switching signal to control output current to a lighting circuit. (¶19L1-15: a dimming control circuit comprises: an input terminal for receiving an input signal; an analog and digital dimming circuit receiving the input signal, wherein the analog and digital dimming circuit provides an analog dimming function when a voltage level of the input signal is between a predetermined lower limit and a predetermined upper limit, and a digital dimming function when the voltage level of the input signal switches above and below the predetermined lower limit, a power circuit for supplying an output current in correspondence to the analog signal generated by the analog and digital dimming circuit.)
It would have been obvious to one ordinarily skilled in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to modify the dimming controller disclosed by Yang to incorporate the feature of Liu to enable hybrid dimming scheme.
One of ordinary skill in the art would’ve been motivated because hybrid dimming is known to have a higher dimming ratio, better energy efficiency and reduce EMI and consisted dimming without color shifting.
Regarding claim 20, the claim recites similar limitations as claims 4, except in method form, thus rejected in the same manner as claims 4.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-11 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RAYMOND R CHAI whose telephone number is (571)270-0576. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30AM-5:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Alexander H Taningco can be reached at (571)272-8048. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Raymond R Chai/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2844
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