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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election of Specie IV, the embodiment 4 shown in Figure 1 with the sequence diagram of Figure 5, in the reply filed on 09/04/26 is acknowledged. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.01(a)).
Applicant indicates that claims 1, 5, 7-8 and 15-16 are readable on the elected Specie IV.
Claims 2-4, 6, 9-14 and 17-18 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Specie(s), there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 09/04/26.
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, 5, 7, 8, 15 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Shinomiya et al. (US 2019/0363706).
For claim 1, Figure 12 of Shinomiya et al. teaches a semiconductor device comprising a parallel circuit (1, 2) of a unipolar switching element (2) and a bipolar switching element (1), wherein the bipolar switching element (1) has a greater chip size (see [0002]) than the unipolar switching element (2).
For claim 5, Figure 12 of Shinomiya et al. teaches a control circuit (42) to drive the unipolar switching element (2) and the bipolar switching element (1), wherein the control circuit (42) turns on the bipolar switching element (1) and then turns on the unipolar switching element (2) when turning on the unipolar switching element (2) and the bipolar switching element (1), and turns off the unipolar switching element (2) and then turns off the bipolar switching element (1) when turning off the unipolar switching element (2) and the bipolar switching element (2), (see timing diagram for IGBT DRIVE CIRCUIT INPUT SIGNAL, RC-IGBT GATE VOLTAGE, and MOS GATE VOLTAGE in Figure 14).
For claims 7 and 15, Figure 12 of Shinomiya et al. teaches wherein the unipolar switching element (2) is formed of a wide bandgap semiconductor (see [0003]).
For claims 8 and 16, Figure 12 of Shinomiya et al. teaches wherein the unipolar switching element (2) is a MOSFET formed of SiC (see [0003]), and the bipolar switching element (1) is an IGBT (see [0003]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directly to Examiner Long Nguyen whose telephone number is (571) 272-1753. The Examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 5:00pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Regis Betsch, can be reached at (571) 270-7101. The fax number for this group is (571) 273-8300.
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/Long Nguyen/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2836
Prosecution Insights