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
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 3/3/2025 has been considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 7-8 are objected to because of the following informalities: Applicant has removed the item matching from all of the claims expect claims 7-8, giving the appearance that it was intended to remove the item matching from claims 7-8 as well.
Clarification is requested.
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 13-15 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claims 13 and 14, the phrase "such as" renders the claim indefinite because it is unclear whether the limitations following the phrase are part of the claimed invention. See MPEP § 2173.05(d). For the purpose of examination, the claims shall be interpreted as requiring the optionally cascaded H-bridge topology.
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) 1-4, 6 and 8-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Morita (JP 2017-192297) in view of Abarzadeh (US 2023/0369964).
With respect to claim 1, Morita discloses a pre-charging arrangement for a poly-phase power converter (Fig. 1 220) arranged for being supplied by a poly-phase AC power supply (Fig. 1 AC supply to 100) without an input filter, wherein the poly-phase power converter is arranged to be connected to and disconnected from the poly-phase AC power supply by a first circuit breaker (Fig. 1 100), wherein the pre-charging arrangement comprises: an AC power supply (Fig. 1 AC supply to 400) connected via a transformer (Fig. 1 600,700), having a primary side (Fig. 1 500 side) and a secondary side (Fig. 1 900 side), between a first common point (Fig. 1 point C2-C3) and a second common point (Fig. 1 negative end of C4) of the poly-phase power converter for pre-charging DC link capacitors (Fig. 1 C3,C4) of the poly-phase power converter, and a second circuit breaker (Fig. 1 400) for connecting and disconnecting the pre-charging arrangement. Morita does not disclose an input filter on the AC input lines.
Abarzadeh discloses an input filter (Fig. 1 Double Stage Filter) with a poly-phase power converter (Fig. 1 inverter) arranged for being supplied by a poly-phase AC power supply (Fig. 1 3-Phase Power Grid) through the input filter and further teaches connected a first common point (Fig. 8 ground) to a second common point (Fig. 1 n) of the poly-phase power converter (paragraph 94). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement an input filter so as to implement a pre-charging arrangement for a poly-phase power converter arranged for being supplied by a poly-phase AC power supply via an input filter, wherein the poly-phase power converter is arranged to be connected to and disconnected from the poly-phase AC power supply by a first circuit breaker, wherein the pre-charging arrangement comprises: an AC power supply connected via a transformer, having a primary side and a secondary side, between a first common point of the input filter and a second common point of the poly-phase power converter for pre-charging DC link capacitors of the poly-phase power converter, and a second circuit breaker for connecting and disconnecting the pre-charging arrangement. The reason for doing so was to provide sufficient switching noise attenuation and guarantee high current control bandwidth, in addition to providing common DM and CM noise attenuation as taught by Abarzadeh.
With respect to claim 2, Morita in view of Abarzadeh make obvious the pre-charging arrangement of claim 1, configured to: open the second circuit breaker (Fig. 1 400) after the pre-charging, and, subsequently, close the first circuit breaker (Fig. 1 100) for initiating a normal operation of the poly-phase power converter.
With respect to claim 3, Morita in view of Abarzadeh make obvious the pre-charging arrangement of claim 1 as set forth above, Morita discloses a 3-phase AC power supply in the embodiment of Figure 1, and wherein the AC power supply is a single-phase electric grid (Morita Fig. 4 single phase AC supply to 400) in the embodiment of Figure 4. 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 AC power supply is a single-phase electric grid, in order to reduce the size of the transformer and pre-charging arrangement.
With respect to claim 4, Morita in view of Abarzadeh make obvious the pre-charging arrangement of claim 1 as set forth above without a PWM power supply in the embodiment of Figure 1, and discloses wherein the AC power supply comprises a pulse-width modulated power supply (Fig. 4 810) connected to the transformer in the embodiment of Figure 4. 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 AC power supply comprises a pulse-width modulated power supply connected to the transformer, in order to control the voltage and current during the pre-charging.
With respect to claim 6, Morita in view of Abarzadeh make obvious the pre-charging arrangement of claim 1, wherein the primary side (Fig. 1 721 side) of the transformer is connected to the AC power supply, and the secondary side of the transformer (Fig. 1 722) between the first common point (in combination Fig. 1 node C2-C3) and the second common point (Fig. 1 negative terminal of C4).
With respect to claim 8, Morita in view of Abarzadeh make obvious the pre-charging arrangement of claim 1, wherein the input filter comprises at least a plurality of filter capacitors (Abarzadeh Fig. 8 C2; one for each phase) comprising first (Fig. 8 C2 + terminal) and second terminals (Fig. 8 C2 - terminal), wherein the first terminals of the filter capacitors are connected to respective phases (Abarzadeh Fig. 1 va,vb,vc) of the poly-phase AC power supply and the second terminals (Fig. 8 ground) of the filter capacitors are connected to the first common point (Fig. 1 n; paragraph 94).
With respect to claim 9, Morita in view of Abarzadeh make obvious the pre-charging arrangement of claim 1, wherein a turns ratio of the transformer (Fig. 1 600), being a ratio of primary side turns to secondary side turns, is less than one (Fig. 1 600 step up transformer).
With respect to claim 10, Morita in view of Abarzadeh make obvious the pre-charging arrangement of claim 1, wherein the second circuit breaker (Fig. 1 400) is arranged on the primary side of the transformer.
With respect to claim 11, Morita in view of Abarzadeh make obvious the pre-charging arrangement of claim 1, wherein the first circuit breaker (Fig. 1 100) is arranged between the poly-phase AC power supply and the input filter (in combination, input filter positioned between 100 and 200).
With respect to claim 12, Morita in view of Abarzadeh make obvious the pre-charging arrangement of claim 1, wherein a common mode filter (Fig. 8 L2,C2) comprising a plurality of filter inductors (Fig. 8 L2 for each phase) is connected between the input filter (Fig. 8 L1,C1) and the poly-phase converter.
Claim(s) 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Morita (JP 2017-192297) in view of Abarzadeh (US 2023/0369964) and further in view of Valasek (US 2021/0359632).
With respect to claim 5, Morita in view of Abarzadeh make obvious the pre-charging arrangement of claim 4 as set forth above, and remain silent as to ramping the pre-charging voltage. It was well known before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to ramp the pre-charging voltage.
Valasek discloses a pre-charging arrangement (Fig. 1 110) wherein the pulse-width modulated power supply is configured to ramp-up (Fig. 4 426) a pre-charging voltage (Fig. 4 VDC) in accordance with a pre-defined slope (Fig. 7 slope 702). 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 pulse-width modulated power supply is configured to ramp-up a pre-charging voltage in accordance with a pre-defined slope, in order to limit the pre-charging current to prevent over-current fault tripping.
Claim(s) 7 and 13-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Morita (JP 2017-192297) in view of Abarzadeh (US 2023/0369964) and further in view of Xie (CN 114567012 A).
With respect to claim 7, Morita in view of Abarzadeh make obvious the pre-charging arrangement of claim 1 as set forth above. Morita discloses a multilevel converter but does not require the use of plurality of H-bridges. The implementation of modular multilevel converters were well known before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Xie discloses a pre-charging arrangement (Fig. 1 5,9) wherein the poly-phase power converter (Fig. 1 3; Fig 14) comprises a plurality of phase legs, each one of the phase legs comprising a first terminal (Fig. 14 + bus) and a second terminal (Fig. 14 - bus), and a plurality of H-bridges (“full bridge modules” as in Fig. 9 16) connected in series between the first (Fig. 9 DC+) and second terminals (Fig. 9 DC-), wherein the first terminals (Fig. 9 DC+) are connected to respective phases of the poly-phase AC power supply (Fig. 9 AC 3~) and the second terminals (Fig. 9 DC-) are connected to the second common point. 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 poly-phase power converter comprises a plurality of phase legs, each one of the phase legs comprising a first terminal and a second terminal, and a plurality of H-bridges connected in series between the first and second terminals, wherein the first terminals are connected to respective phases of the poly-phase AC power supply and the second terminals are connected to the second common point, in order to take advantage of the modular multilevel converter, such as the improved redundancy and low EMI.
With respect to claim 13, Morita in view of Abarzadeh and Xie make obvious the power converter system as set forth above. See claims 1 and 7 for additional details.
With respect to claim 14, Morita in view of Abarzadeh and Xie make obvious the method as set forth above. See claims 1 and 7 for additional details.
With respect to claim 15, Morita in view of Abarzadeh and Xie make obvious the method as set forth above, wherein the pre-charging comprises: closing a second circuit breaker (Fig. 1 400) to connect an AC power supply via a transformer (Fig. 1 600,700), having a primary side and a secondary side, between the first common point of the input filter (in combination, Fig. 1 node C2-C3) and a second common point (Fig. 1 C4 negative terminal) of the poly-phase power converter for pre-charging DC link capacitors (Fig. 1 C3,C4) of the poly-phase power converter, and opening the second circuit breaker (Fig. 1 400) after the pre-charging, wherein, the method comprises closing the first circuit breaker (Fig. 1 100) after the opening to initiate a normal operation of the poly-phase power converter.
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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