DETAILED ACTION
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-9, 11-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Sood (U.S. Pub. No. 2023/0055861).
Regarding claim 1, Sood discloses an inspection system for performing ultrasound interrogation sessions upon battery cells, the inspection system comprising:
ultrasound transducers configured to: receive ultrasound excitation signals; transmit ultrasound at target points of each battery cell, in response to receiving the excitation signals; detect ultrasound reflected from each battery cell in response to the transmission of the ultrasound at the target points; and generate response signals based upon the detected ultrasound at the target points (¶4);
a transport module that is configured to either move each battery cell relative to the ultrasound transducers, or to move the ultrasound transducers relative to each battery cell, during the ultrasound interrogation of each battery cell (abstract discloses a conveying system that moves each battery);
a controller and a signal drive and acquisition system (SDM), wherein the SDM is configured to generate and send the excitation signals to the ultrasound transducers, to receive the response signals associated with the detected ultrasound at the target points from the ultrasound transducers, and to forward the response signals to the controller (conveying system controlled by a controller disclosed in abstract. the controller 312 may command the ultrasound source 304 to apply an ultrasonic pulse to the battery cell 200 the ultrasound sensor 310 can generate a signal based on detected ultrasound and convey the signal to the controller 312, controller is an SDM, Fig. 3a, ¶66); and
wherein the controller creates a hyper pixel for the response signals at each of the target points, each hyper pixel including a representation of the response signals generated for each of the target points (construed as recording the data at each point); and
a processing system configured to receive the response signals and the hyper pixels from the controller, to detect one or more misaligned layers (construed as “ruffling”) in each cell and a misalignment type for each of the one or more misaligned layers based upon the response signals or the hyper pixels, and to calculate a misalignment score (¶56 “metric can be provided for the degradation”) based upon the response signals or the hyper pixels, the misalignment score indicating a level of misalignment of the one or more layers in each battery cell (these pixels are stored data which is disclosed in ¶246. The layers are being measured by the ultrasound, ¶55-56, to determine SOH of the battery disclosed in ¶70-71 and 75.),
wherein the inspection system performs an action associated with each battery cell based upon the misalignment score (determine state of health ¶56).
Regarding claim 2 and 15 which depends from claim 1 and 14 respectively, Sood discloses wherein the controller receives the misalignment score from the processing system, and the action performed by the inspection system for each battery cell based on the misalignment score includes the controller performing one or more of:
presenting the misalignment score to a display of the controller (¶99);
presenting a first color to the display when the misalignment score exceeds a threshold value associated with non-misalignment, and presenting a second color that is different than the first color to the display when the misalignment score is less than the threshold value (first option addressed); and
including the misalignment score in a message and sending the message via email or text message to a user device of an operator of the inspection system.
Regarding claim 3 and 16 which depends from claim 1 and 14 respectively, Sood discloses wherein the controller receives the misalignment score from the processing system, and the action performed by the inspection system for each battery cell based on the misalignment score includes the controller instructing a gantry (construed as a rejection path of the conveying system) of the transport module to move each battery cell to either a pass bin or a fail bin based upon the misalignment score (claim 9).
Regarding claim 5 which depends from claim 1, Sood discloses wherein: the transport module is configured to move the ultrasound transducers relative to each battery cell, and the ultrasound transducers are contact transducers (¶118 describes couplant in contact with the exterior surface) including a couplant located between faces of the ultrasound transducers and either a surface of the battery cell or a surface of a housing within which each battery cell is housed.
Regarding claim 6 which depends from claim 1, Sood discloses wherein the misalignment type is one of a short anode misalignment, a short cathode misalignment, a long anode misalignment (¶3 discloses expansion of the electrode which is an anode), a long cathode misalignment, a folded anode misalignment, a folded cathode misalignment, and a folded electrode assembly misalignment (long anode option addressed).
Regarding claim 7 and 18 which depends from claim 1 and 14 respectively, Sood discloses wherein the processing system includes a machine learning model that generates a predicted misalignment score as output, in response to the machine learning model receiving, as input, the response signals or the hyper pixels of each battery cell obtained during the interrogation session of each battery cell (all data gathering by computers is machine learning).
Regarding claim 8 and 19 which depends from claim 7 and 18 respectively, Sood discloses wherein the machine learning model is previously trained to predict misalignment of the one or more layers in the battery cells and the type of misalignment using training data, the training data including response signals and/or hyper pixels of reference battery cells obtained from interrogation sessions of the reference battery cells (addressed above in claim 3).
Regarding claim 9 and 17 which depends from claim 1 and 14 respectively, Sood discloses wherein the ultrasound transducers are configured to focus the transmitted ultrasound signals into a focused beam at the target points (¶38 discloses focusing the ultrasound).
Regarding claim 11 which depends from claim 9, Sood discloses wherein faces of the ultrasound transducers are formed to focus the transmitted ultrasound signals into a focused beam at the target points (the face that is pointed at the battery).
Regarding claim 12 which depends from claim 9, Sood discloses wherein the ultrasound transducers are included in an array of transducers, and the array focuses the transmitted ultrasound signals into a focused beam at the target points (shown in fig. 10).
Regarding claim 13 which depends from claim 1, Sood discloses wherein the processing system is located on a network that is remote to the controller and the SDM (there is communication between the controller and the BCM disclosed in ¶104 and the processing can happen at either location).
Regarding claim 14, Sood discloses a method for an inspection system that performs ultrasound interrogation sessions upon battery cells, the method comprising: interrogating each battery cell by transmitting ultrasound signals into each battery cell at target points, detecting ultrasound reflected from each battery cell at each of the target points, and generating response signals from the detected ultrasound at each of the target points; creating a hyper pixel for each target point, wherein each hyper pixel includes a representation of the response signals at each target point; detecting one or more misaligned layers and a misalignment type for each of the one or more misaligned layers in each cell based upon the response signals or the hyper pixels; calculating a misalignment score based upon the response signals or the hyper pixels for each target point, the misalignment score indicating a level of misalignment of the one or more layers in each battery cell; and performing an action associated with each battery cell based upon the misalignment score (the limitations of this claim have been addressed above in claim 1).
Regarding claim 20 which depends from claim 14, Sood discloses extracting one or more ultrasound features from the response signals and/or the hyper pixels obtained for each battery cell, the one or more ultrasound features having been experimentally shown to detect layer misalignment of the one or more layers in the battery cells, wherein calculating a misalignment score based upon the response signals or the hyper pixels for each target point comprises a machine learning model generating a predicted misalignment score as output, in response to the machine learning model receiving, as input, the one or more ultrasound features extracted for each battery cell (the system performs this analysis of the ultrasound results to determine health of the battery and is able to determine through this data gathering which is a form of machine learning how to fail or pass batteries as addressed above).
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) 4, 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sood (U.S. Pub. No. 2023/0055861) as applied to claims 1 and 14 above, and in view of .
Regarding claim 4 which depends from claim 1, Sood discloses wherein: the transport module is configured to move each battery cell relative to the ultrasound transducers (shown in fig. 21), the ultrasound transducers are non-contact transducers (shown in fig. 20).
Sood does not disclose the ultrasound transducers and each battery cell are immersed in an electrically non- conducting fluid during the transmission of the ultrasound and the detection of the ultrasound.
Murphy, which deals in measuring batteries, teaches and the ultrasound transducers and each battery cell are immersed in an electrically non- conducting fluid (col. 12, line 65 – col. 13, line 16 teaches measurement done in fluid) during the transmission of the ultrasound and the detection of the ultrasound (col. 17, lines 1-10 discloses the fluid immersion during ultrasound).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have modified Sood with the fluid of Murphy because this provides for measurement beneficial to determining health of the battery (col. 12, line 65 – col. 13, line 16).
Regarding claim 10 which depends from claim 9, Sood does not disclose wherein the ultrasound transducers include a lens attached to a face of the transducers to focus the transmitted ultrasound signals into a focused beam at the target points.
Murphy, which deals in ultrasound of batteries, teaches wherein the ultrasound transducers include a lens attached to a face of the transducers to focus the transmitted ultrasound signals into a focused beam at the target points (col. 19, lines 1-3).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have modified Sood with the lens of Murphy because this allows for the energy to be focused (col. 19, lines 1-3).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GONZALO LAGUARDA whose telephone number is (571)272-5920. The examiner can normally be reached 8-5 M-Th Alt. F.
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GONZALO LAGUARDA
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3747 email: gonzalo.laguarda@uspto.gov
/GONZALO LAGUARDA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3747
