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 . 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 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.
This office action is in response to the application filed on 01/17/2025.
Drawing
The drawings filed on 01/17/2025 are objected.
Applicant has canceled claim 1 and added new claims 2-21. No new matter is added.
Claims 2-21 are pending and have been examined.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 08/14/2025 is in compliance
with the provisions of 37 C.F.R. § 1.97. Accordingly, the IDS has/have been considered by the examiner.
Drawing Objection
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every
feature of the specified invention:-
In re to claim 2, "reference terminal".
In re to claim 3, “capacitive voltage divider”.
In re to claim 8, “the second inductor comprises a third inductor in series with a fourth inductor through a common terminal”.
Therefore, the above limitations on claims 2, 3 and 8 must be shown/labeled on the drawings or the features canceled from the claims. No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification Objection
The specification is objected to as failing to provide proper antecedent basis for the
claimed subject matter. See 37 CFR 1.75(d)(1) and MPEP § 608.01(o). Correction of the following is required: The limitations presented in claims 2, 3 and 8 have no clear antecedent basis in the specification. In particular, there is no mention of “reference terminal, capacitive voltage divider and the second inductor comprises a third inductor in series with a fourth inductor through a common terminal” in the specification. Appropriate correction is required.
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 2-7 and 14-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Blanken et al. (US 2010/0045247 A1), hereinafter ‘Blanken, in view of Huang et al. (US 11,005,366 B2), hereinafter ‘Huang.
In re to claim 2, Blanken disclose a power converter (i.e. fig. 2, see par. [0041]), comprising: a switching power converter including a power switch (i.e. SM) and a first inductor (i.e. L1), wherein the power switch (i.e. SM) and the first inductor (i.e. L1) are coupled to an input terminal (i.e. 101), an output terminal (i.e. input terminal of VO’/VR), and a reference terminal (i.e. NA terminal), and wherein the switching power converter is configured to convert an input voltage difference between an input voltage (i.e. VO’/VR) at the input terminal and a reference voltage of the reference terminal (i.e. voltage at node of NA) into an output voltage difference between an output voltage at the output terminal (i.e. input terminal of VO’/VR) and the reference voltage (i.e. voltage at node of NA, see pars. [0041-0044]); and a second inductor (i.e. L2) coupled between the internal terminal (i.e. terminal node of NA) and the output terminal (i.e. output terminal of RL, fig. 2 see par. [0044]). Except, Blanken failed to explicitly disclose that a switched-capacitor regulator configured to convert the reference voltage into a regulated voltage at an internal terminal. Whereas Huang teach that a switched-capacitor regulator (i.e. 1, fig. 1) configured to convert the reference voltage into a regulated voltage at an internal terminal (i.e. see the Abstract and col. 4, lines 14-45). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the power converter of Blanken by incorporating a switched-capacitor regulator of Blanken in order to improve the efficiency of the output voltage regulation processes.
In re to claims 3-7, Blanken disclose the power converter (i.e. fig. 2, see par. [0041]) of claim 2, further comprising: a capacitive voltage divider (i.e. fig. 4) comprising a first capacitor (i.e. CA) coupled between the input terminal (i.e. input into L1) and the reference terminal (i.e. the terminal connecting CA, CB and RB) and a second capacitor (i.e. CB) coupled between the reference terminal (i.e. the terminal connecting CA, CB and RB) and ground (i.e. see fig. 4 and par. [0063]); wherein the switching power converter comprises a buck converter (i.e. the level of the supply voltage VO should be rapidly decreased to optimally fit the lower output power, that is during buck conversion mode, see para. [0036]); wherein the switching power converter comprises a boost converter (i.e. the level of the supply voltage VO is high during periods in time wherein a high output power is required, that is during power boost, see para. [0036]);
wherein the switching power converter comprises a buck-boost converter (i.e. see para. [0036]);
further comprising: a capacitor (i.e. CL, fig. 2) coupled between the output terminal and ground (i.e. the output terminal of the load RL and ground, see fig. 2).
Claims 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Blanken et al. (US 2010/0045247 A1), hereinafter ‘Blanken, in view of Huang et al. (US 11,005,366 B2), hereinafter ‘Huang, further in view of Broussev et al. (US 2013/00336011 A1), hereinafter ‘Broussev,
In re to claim 8, Blanken disclose the power converter (i.e. fig. 2, see par. [0041]) converter of claim 2, the power converter further comprising: a capacitor (i.e. C1) coupled between the common terminal (i.e. the terminal of NA) and ground (i.e. the ground, see fig. 2). Except, Blanken and Huang fail to explicitly disclose that wherein the second inductor comprises a third inductor in series with a fourth inductor through a common terminal. Whereas Broussev teach that wherein the second inductor (i.e. 15, fig. 1) comprises a third inductor (i.e. 15.1) in series with a fourth inductor (i.e. 13) through a common terminal (i.e. terminal 17, see fig. 1). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the power converter of Blanken and Huang by incorporating a third inductor in series with a fourth inductor through a common terminal of Broussev to improve the efficiency of the output voltage regulation processes.
Claims 9-13 and 18-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Blanken et al. (US 2010/0045247 A1), hereinafter ‘Blanken, in view of Huang et al. (US 11,005,366 B2), hereinafter ‘Huang, further in view of Aichen et al. (WO 2015138547 A1), hereinafter ‘Aichen.
In re to claims 9-13, Blanken disclose the power converter (i.e. fig. 2, see par. [0041]) of claim 2. wherein the switched-capacitor regulator comprises a Dickson charge pump; wherein the switched-capacitor regulator comprises a Ladder charge pump; wherein the switched-capacitor regulator comprises a Series-Parallel charge pump; wherein the switched-capacitor regulator comprises a Fibonacci charge pump; wherein the switched-capacitor regulator comprises a Doubler charge pump. Except, Blanken and Huang fail to explicitly disclose that wherein the switched-capacitor regulator comprises a Dickson charge pump; wherein the switched-capacitor regulator comprises a Ladder charge pump; wherein the switched-capacitor regulator comprises a Series-Parallel charge pump; wherein the switched-capacitor regulator comprises a Fibonacci charge pump; wherein the switched-capacitor regulator comprises a Doubler charge pump. Whereas Aichen teach that a switched-capacitor regulator comprises a Dickson charge pump; a Ladder charge pump; a Series-Parallel charge pump; a Fibonacci charge pump and a Doubler charge pump (i.e. 10. Fig. 4, see page 26, lines 3-9). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the power converter of Blanken by incorporating the a switched-capacitor regulator of Aichen, since it was well known to implement Dickson charge pump; a Ladder charge pump; a Series-Parallel charge pump; a Fibonacci charge pump and a Doubler charge pump in a power converter circuit or apparatus.
Remarks
The examiner has cited columns, line numbers, paragraph numbers, references, or
figures in the references applied to the claims below 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 reference in entirety, as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention. See MPEP § 2141.02 and § 2123.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YEMANE MEHARI whose telephone number is (571)270-7603. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9AM TO 6 PM.
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/YEMANE MEHARI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838
