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 2-5 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.
Claim 2 recites the phrase “generate a lamp signal”. The phrase is unclear as to what a “lamp signal” is and thus renders the claim indefinite.
Claim 3 recites “error amplifier that does not have an integral element, so as to”. The phrase “integral element” is not understood and thus renders the claim indefinite. Additionally, the phrase “does not have integral element, so as to” is worded awkwardly and should be rephrased.
Dependent claims 4 and 5 are rejected by virtue of its dependency.
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.
Claims 1 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/(a)(2) as being anticipated by Tomiyoshi US7045993.
With regards to claims 1, and 7, Tomiyoshi discloses an electric power supply control device [Fig. 2 and 3] comprising: a control circuit 220 configured to drive an inductor L1 current by turning on or off an upper-side switch M1 and a lower-side switch M2 of a switching output circuit, so as to generate an output voltage Vout from an input voltage Vin; an error amplifier A4 configured to compare the output voltage or a feedback voltage Vsense corresponding thereto with a predetermined reference voltage Vref, so as to output an error signal including voltage feedback information; an information hold unit 210 configured to sample current feedback information Vsh corresponding to the inductor current flowing in the lower-side switch M2 during ON period of the lower-side switch, and configured to hold and output the same as a hold signal including the current feedback information during ON period of the upper-side switch (Col. 2, Lines 43-50); and an OFF timing control unit 220, 360 configured to respectively receive inputs of the error signal and the hold signal, so as to determine OFF timing of the upper-side switch M1 (Col. 3, Lines 4-12).
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 3 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tomiyoshi US7045993 as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Lin US20160170425.
With regards to claim 3, Tomiyoshi disclose the device as recited above in claim 1. Tomiyoshi disclose an error amplifier A4. Tomiyoshi fails to explicitly disclose correct an input signal or an output signal of the error amplifier.
Lin discloses correcting an input signal or an output signal of the error amplifier [paragraph 21]. It would have obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate the features of Lin into the device of Tomiyoshi to improve/stabilize the output voltage as taught by Lin [paragraph 21]
With regards to claim 6, Tomiyoshi disclose the device as recited above in claim 1. Tomiyoshi fails to explicitly disclose wherein the device is integrated into a semiconductor integrated circuit device.
Lin discloses the power supply circuit is usually packaged into an integrated circuit (IC) [paragraph 4]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate the features of Lin into the device of Tomiyoshi to improve size, enhanced performance, and cost as implied by Lin.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Isham et al. US6246220 shows an error amplifier connected to a compensation circuit [Fig. 2]
Tomiyoshi US7119522 shows a step-down switching voltage regulation
Chang US20090079409 shows a voltage/current control apparatus
Nakamura US20120032660 shows an error amplifier connect to a phase compensation capacitor [paragraph 47].
Ho US10587196 shows a constant on-time controller
Nagasato et al. US20210257978 shows a switching power supply
Mednik US20220200453 shows a DC-DC converter.
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ALEXANDER H. TANINGCO
Supervisory Patent Examiner
Art Unit 2845
/ALEXANDER H TANINGCO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2845
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