Patent Application 18290261 - POWER CONVERSION DEVICE FOR PERFORMING DC-DC - Rejection

Patent Application 18290261 - POWER CONVERSION DEVICE FOR PERFORMING DC-DC

Title: POWER CONVERSION DEVICE FOR PERFORMING DC-DC CONVERSION, AND ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM INCLUDING SAME

Application Information

• Invention Title: POWER CONVERSION DEVICE FOR PERFORMING DC-DC CONVERSION, AND ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM INCLUDING SAME
• Application Number: 18290261
• Submission Date: 2025-05-22T00:00:00.000Z
• Effective Filing Date: 2023-11-10T00:00:00.000Z
• Filing Date: 2023-11-10T00:00:00.000Z
• National Class: 307
• National Sub-Class: 082000
• Examiner Employee Number: 82495
• Art Unit: 2849
• Tech Center: 2800

Rejection Summary

• 102 Rejections: 0
• 103 Rejections: 1

Cited Patents

No patents were cited in this rejection.

Office Action Text

    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 .

Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.

The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA  35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.

Claims 1-7 and 9-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA  35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. 
Claims 1 and 9 each recite, “a battery management system coupled to the set of batteries  … and control charging and discharging of the set of batteries”. However, support for this functionality of the battery management system (BMS) could not be found within the original specification. The original specification discusses each battery management system as “Here, a battery management system (BMS) may be installed for each battery. The BMS may monitor a current, a voltage and a  temperature of each battery pack (or rack) to be managed, calculate a Status Of Charge (SOC) of the battery based on a monitoring result to control charging and discharging” (see [0039] of the original specification). That is, the instant specification does not explicitly and clearly disclose the BMS itself controlling charging and discharging, but rather monitor the current, voltage, temperature, calculate a status of charge, and provide monitoring results. The instant specification discloses that the monitoring results are used to control charging and discharging, but does not clearly and unambiguously disclose that the BMS itself is used to control charging and discharging.
For the purpose of applying art, the examiner is interpreting the claims as requiring the monitoring results used to control charging and discharging and not necessarily the BMS itself, consistent with the above description in the original specification.


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.

The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.

Claims 1-7 and 9-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hassanpour et al. (“A Series Partial Power Converter Based on Dual Active Converter for Residential Battery Energy Storage System”, of record and hereinafter “Hassanpour”) in view of Agamy et al. (WO 2018/222672 A1, of record and hereinafter “Agamy”) and Izumi et al. (US 11,984,746, hereinafter “Izumi”). 

Claim 1: Hassanpour discloses a power converting apparatus (Fig.1(a)), comprising: 
a set of batteries (providing VB; see pg.3, section III: “the number of battery cells must be selected in a way that the following criteria will be fulfilled”); and 
a DC/DC converter (DC-DC converter shown in Fig.1(a)) including an input (positive input of VConv) connected to an output of the set of batteries (see Fig.1(a)), 
wherein a positive output terminal of the DC/DC converter (positive voltage of VC) is connected to a load (VDC-, which receives current IDC during “discharge mode”, thus has an associated load), wherein a negative output terminal of the DC/DC converter  (negative terminal of VC) is connected to a positive terminal of the set of batteries (see Fig.1(a)), and wherein a negative terminal of the set of batteries is connected to the load (negative terminal of VDC).

Regarding claim 9, Hassanpour discloses an energy storage system (see Fig.1(a) and title), comprising: 
a power converting apparatus (Fig.1(a)) including a set of batteries (providing VB; see pg.3, section III: “the number of battery cells must be selected in a way that the following criteria will be fulfilled”) and a DC/DC converter (shown in Fig.1(a)) including an input (positive input of VConv) connected to an output of the set of batteries (see Fig.1(a)); and 
a load (VDC-, which receives current IDC during “discharge mode”, thus has an associated load) wherein a positive output terminal of the DC/DC converter (positive voltage of VC) is connected to a load (VDC-, which receives current IDC during “discharge mode”, thus has an associated load), wherein a negative output terminal of the DC/DC converter  (negative terminal of VC) is connected to a positive terminal of the set of batteries (see Fig.1(a)), and wherein a negative terminal of the set of batteries is connected to the load (negative terminal of VDC).

Hassanpour does not disclose further context as to the specific application of the power converting apparatus. Therefore, Hassanpour does not disclose “a battery management system connected to the set of batteries and configured to monitor conditions of the set of batteries and control charging and discharging of the set of batteries; a battery section controller coupled to the battery management system and configured to monitor and control the conditions of the set of batteries; a power conversion system connected to the DC/DC converter and configured to control power to and from the DC/DC converter and configured to control charging and discharging of the set of batteries; and a site controller coupled to the battery section controller and the power conversion system” of claims 1 and 9 and/or “power conversion system connected to the power converting apparatus and a load and configured to convert a DC output from the power converting apparatus into an AC output in accordance with the load; a battery management system coupled to the set of batteries and configured to monitor conditions of the set of batteries and control charging and discharging of the set of batteries; a battery section controller coupled to the battery management system and configured to monitor and control the conditions of the set of batteries; and a site controller coupled to the battery section controller and the power conversion system” of claim 9.

21.	Agamy discloses that an energy storage system (Fig.1) including batteries (104) and a DC-DC converter (106) may include a power conversion system (a DC-AC converter; see [0013] or grid-tied inverter 112; see [0014]) in order to provide power to an AC load (see [0013], [0014]) and to control power to and from the DC/DC converter  and configured to control charging and discharging of the set of batteries (see [0013], [0014]), . Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to have provided a power conversion system in the form of a DC-AC converter/inverter between the DC bus of Hassanpour and loads in order to have provided AC power to AC loads.

Agamy, however, does not explicitly disclose the particular monitoring and control structure including the recited battery management system connected to the set of batteries and configured to monitor conditions of the set of batteries and control charging and discharging of the set of batteries, a battery section control … and a site controller”. Izumi discloses a similar power supply system (2 of Fig.1) including similar power conversion systems to control charging/discharging of batteries (50, 60, 70; col.7,58-col.8,9), a battery management system (BS, Fig.2, which may be a BMS; see col.5,26-35) connected to a set of batteries (B, which is shown as multiple cells in series; see Fig.2) and configured to monitor conditions of the set of batteries (col.5,26-35) to control charging and discharging of the set of batteries (the state is output to the GCU 100, which controls charging and discharging of battery banks, thus an implied relationship between the data from monitoring and charging/discharging; see col.7,58-col.8,6); a battery section controller (SCU, which controls a string of batteries; see Figs.1, 2, and col.4,28-42) coupled to the battery management system (see Fig.2, where the SCU is connected to each BS) and configured to monitor and control the conditions of the set of batteries (see col.5,43-26, where the detection result of BS is provided to the SCU, thus the SCU monitors the conditions of the batteries, and col.6,27-34, where the SCU generates gate signals to control charging/discharging of the battery modules); and a site controller (100) coupled to the battery section controller (see col.6,27-28) and the power conversion system (via the SCU; see col.5,38-39). Izumi discloses that such hierarchal control including individual BMS, a section controller, and a site controller provides suitable management between a server via the site controller (col.10-10-16), to groups of batteries via a string controller (D1-D3; col.10,55-67), to the monitoring of the conditions of individual sets of batteries via each BMS (col.5,23-39). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to have provided the hierarchal control architecture of Izumi, including a BMS for each set of batteries, a battery section controller controlling multiple sets, and a site controller controlling multiple sections, in order to have provided suitable control of a large scale energy storage system between commands sent from a server to the individual monitoring of battery cells.

Claim 2: Hassanpour discloses wherein a sum of a first output of the DC/DC converter and a second output of the set of batteries is input to the load (see pg.2, equation 1).
Claim 3: Hassanpour discloses wherein the sum of the first output and the second output is equal to a target power required by the load (during discharge mode; see pg.2, equations 1 and 2).
Claim 4: Hassanpour discloses  wherein the DC/DC converter is configured to perform a DC/DC conversion of a voltage input from the set of batteries and to boost the voltage input to a target voltage level to obtain the first output (see pg.2, section II: “Based on the sign of the output voltage of the DC-DC converter (VC), the S-PPC can be buck or boost converter”).
Claim 5: Hassanpour discloses a capacitor connected between the positive output terminal and the negative output terminal of the DC/DC converter to accumulate at least one charge flowing in the DC/DC converter (capacitor C, which is between the positive and negative output terminals of the DC/DC in Fig.1(a), which thus accumulates charge flowing in the DC/DC converter IC).
Claim 6: Hassanpour discloses wherein a battery included in the set of batteries includes one of a battery pack, a battery rack, and a battery cell (battery cells; see pg.3, section III).
Claim 7: the combination discloses wherein the load is the power conversion system (e.g. the inverter of Agamy and Izumi used to provide power to the connected grid).
Claims 10-14: see the discussion of claims 2-6 above.
Claim 15: the combination discloses wherein the load is the power conversion system (corresponding to a power conversion, i.e. DC/AC converter/inverter of Agamy connected to the DC-DC converter in the same manner of the instant invention).
Claim 16: see the discussion of claim 17 above.
Claim 17: Hassanpour discloses the positive output terminal of the DC/DC converter is connected to a positive input terminal of the load, and the negative terminal of the set of batteries is connected to a negative input terminal of the load (see Fig.1(a)).
Claims 18 and 20: the combination further discloses a second set of batteries (e.g. 202B of Agamy); a second DC/DC converter connected to the second set of batteries (e.g. 212B of Agamy); and a second battery management system connected to the second set of batteries (BS in each battery module, shown in Fig.2 of Izumi), wherein: the battery section controller is coupled to the battery management system and the second battery management system and is configured to monitor and control the conditions of the set of batteries and conditions of the second set of batteries (i.e. the battery group of Agamy of Fig.2 being controlled by group controller, corresponding to SCU of Izumi); and the power conversion system is connected to the DC/DC converter and the second DC/DC converter, is configured to control power to and from the DC/DC converter and the second DC/DC converter (see [0013] and [0014] of Agamy), and is configured to control charging and discharging of the set of batteries and the second set of batteries (see [0013] and [0014] of Agamy).
Claims 19 and 21: the combination discloses the conditions of the set of batteries comprise a current, a voltage, and a temperature (see col.5,23-39 of Izumi); the battery management system is configured to monitor the current, the voltage, and the temperature of the set of batteries and configured to calculate a status of charge of the set of batteries based on a monitoring result to control charging and discharging (see col.5,23-39 of Izumi); the battery section controller is configured to monitor and control the current, the voltage, and the temperature (the monitoring results are provided to the SCU; see col.5,23-26); and the DC/DC converter, the battery management system, the battery section controller, and the power conversion system are different from one another (see Figs.2 of Agamy and Fig.2 of Izumi, where each component is shown as different from one another). Although Hassanpour and Agamy do not disclose the recited circuit breakers, Izumi further discloses the battery section controller is further configured to monitor and control a circuit breaker (col.5,1-22) in order to provide user control to battery modules or allow a user to remove a battery module (see col.4,5-18). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to have provided the monitoring and control of a circuit breaker via the battery section controller, as further disclosed by Izumi, in order to have provided user control to battery modules or the ability of a user to remove a battery module.

Response to Arguments
In light of the amendment filed 5/9/2025, the previous objection to the drawings, the objection to the claims, the objection to the specification, and the rejection under 35 U.S.C. 102 have been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see pgs.4-6, filed 5/9/2025, with respect to the previously presented rejections over Hassanpour and/or Agamy have been fully considered in light of the amendment claims and are persuasive.  Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn.  However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Izumi. Specifically, while the examiner agrees that the recited battery management system, battery section controller, and site controller are not clearly disclose by Agamy, Izumi discloses providing a hierarchal control structure including a site (group) controller, a section (string) controller, and individual BMS for each set of batteries in order to provide suitable control between a server and multiple groups of batteries. See the rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 provided above.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RYAN JOHNSON whose telephone number is (571)270-1264. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM.
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/RYAN JOHNSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2849