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 § 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 are 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.
Claims 13 and 15 recite “the command value” there is no command value present in this claim set. It appears typographical error resulting from parent the application’s claim set. Therefore Claims 13 and 14 are unclear. Applicant should cancel claim 13 and 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.
Claims 11-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Carralero (US 20210175955) in view of Matsumoto et al. (US 20240297505) in view of Schurch et al. (US 2020034825).
With respect to claims 11 Carralero teaches a startup method of microgrid configured by a plurality of inverter power supplies independently sharing a load (for example 112) and divided into a master (paragraph 0031) that starts up first and a slave (paragraph 0031) that starts up secondly and later, the startup method comprising: a master initial startup step of initially starting up the master in a CVCF mode (see CV paragraph 0031, 36, see constant frequency output from VCO/sine wave generator outputs 60 Hz output frequency); a slave startup (connected to master or grid paragraph 0031-32).
Carralero does not teach the starting in VSG. Matsumoto teaches the known advantages of starting (see turn on) an inverter in a VSG mode (paragraph 0029-32). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify Carralero to start the slave in a VSG mode for the benefit of preventing cross currents.
Carralero does not teach controlling the VSG mode to a CVCF mode. It is known to transition inverters from a start up to a steady state mode of operations. Schurch teaches the known transition to a VSG mode (paragraph 0030). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify Carralero to include the transitioning to VSG for the benefit of reducing instabilities (paragraph 0014).
With respect to claims 12 Carralero teaches the voltage produced by the slave and grid voltage are matched (see matched to 110).
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 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kustanovich et al. Virtual Synchronous machines with fast current loops and secondary control.
With respect to claim 16 Kustanovich teaches a startup method of microgrid (page 1 col. 2 paragraph 4 see “MG”) configured by a plurality of inverter (see inverters page 1 col. 2 paragraph 5, further see VSMs VSM-1 and VSM-2) power supplies independently sharing a load (loads connected to grid) and divided into a master that starts up first and a slave that starts up secondly and later, the startup (see for example black start page 2 col. 1 paragraph 1) method comprising:
a master (VSM-1 is started first and therefore the master) initial startup step of initially starting up the master in a VSG mode (see page 8 VSM-1 start at t=0); a phase detection step of detecting a phase (see theta.sub.g page 3 see use of gird measurements v from grid in Fig. 2 ) of grid voltage; and a slave (VSM-2 is started up second and therefore the slave) startup step (VSM-2 start t=20) of starting up the slave in a VSG mode based on (each inverter inputs grid phase measurements, VSM-2 occurs after the start of VMS-1 and there the measurements at VSM-2 are based on the phase detected from 1) the phase detected in the phase detection.
Conclusion
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MICHAEL FIN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2836
/MICHAEL R. FIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2836