Appeal No. 96-2551
Application 08/037,767
The only point in dispute is whether the means for precharging,
i.e., resistor 54, precharges one of the capacitors prior to
application of an input pulse to the primary winding of the
transformer, as required by the claim. The examiner contends that
"prior to the transformer receiving pulses, resistor 54 will cause
capacitor 46 to have a charge of approximately zero volts" (final
Office action at 4). Most of appellant's discussion of the
rejection concerns whether the examiner is correct to construe the
term "precharge" as broad enough to read on discharging a
capacitor to approximately zero volts. However, whether or not
the examiner is correct on this point, the rejection fails
because, as appellant correctly notes in an alternative argument
at page 16 of the brief: "The circuit of Landseadel cannot
precharge the capacitor until the power supply, and specifically
the transformer, receives an input. Prior to this time there is
no voltage with which to charge a capacitor." Appellant is
correct in this regard because the transformer, rectifier circuit
36 and capacitors 46 and 48 are part of a DC power supply 24,
which produces DC power supply voltages only when the transformer
primary is receiving AC power (col. 2, lines 31-51). As a result,
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Last modified: November 3, 2007