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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 03/17/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 02/17/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant contends on pages 9-11 of the Remarks that Van Roermund (US 2020/0047003) states “Combining fields can greatly reduce the noise” and “Using parts of fields can further reduce noise”, that Van Roermund does not disclose or satisfy “separate and independent evaluation of each threshold condition without combining or averaging the measurements across parameter types” by stating “the presently claimed independent evaluation approach is inconsistent with Van Roermund’s methodology. Van Roermund combines and averages measurements from multiple parameters to reduce statistical noise and create composite values for comparison to thresholds. (Van Roermund at [0015], [0070]).”.
However, in the disclosure of Van Roermund a “field” is a radiation therapy application, see para. [0003]: “radiation therapy is applied using a radiation therapy system, such as an ion beam delivery system. For each of a plurality of patients a field is delivered. Normally the field is delivered to a patient over multiple radiation sessions, e.g. over multiple days. The portion of a field delivered during a radiation session is referred to as a fraction. Thus, the radiation therapy system delivers a plurality of fields (one or more fields for each patient) and for each field there are multiple fractions given (each patient comes back a multiple number of times to receive the same fraction)”. Thus, when Van Roermund states “Combining fields can greatly reduce the noise” in para. [0015], this is in relation to combining data from multiple therapy sessions, not combining data from multiple types of component measurements.
Van Roermund discloses in paras. [0070]-[0074] separate threshold conditions for different parameter types, specifically a correlation matrix of multiple variables related to hardware failure in a radiation therapy system, “a set of quantities a, b, c, d, etc. can be monitored These quantities form diagnostic data that can be used as variables in identifying the defective, degrading, or otherwise dysfunctioning hardware component, or part thereof. The variables are chosen such that each hardware failure corresponds to a unique combination of variables … [a] correlation matrix may be provided indicating correlation between the variables and the hardware failures. FIG. 8 shows an example of a correlation matrix, correlating hardware failures HW1, HW2, HW3, . . . HW10 to variables a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, k, m, o, p, q, r, s. For example, hardware failure HW2 is uniquely correlated with variable b. For example, hardware failure HW7 is uniquely correlated with the combination of variables e, p, q. … [t]he correlation matrix can be produced manually, e.g. according to knowledge of the system. It is also possible, however, that the correlation matrix is generated, or updated, automatically. Thereto, each time a hardware failure is observed, variables that have recently changed can automatically be searched for … determining a unique correlation between hardware degradation of a specific hardware component and a deviation in the determined average of the normalized value for one or more quantities”. Thus, Van Roermund independently evaluates whether each of multiple different threshold conditions are satisfied.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities: page 4, last sentence of the 4th paragraph reads “patterns which are may indicative of a particular fault” and should either read “patterns which are indicative of” or “patterns which may be indicative of”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Publication No. 2003/0072411 by Welsh et al. ("Welsh") in view of U.S. Publication No. 2020/0047003 by Van Roermund et al. (“Van Roermund”).
Regarding Claim 1, Welsh teaches a particle accelerator (Fig. 2, “radiation therapy device 10”) comprising:
a waveguide (Fig. 2, “wave guide system 114”) for accelerating electrons along an acceleration path (Fig. 2, 112);
a magnetron (“high frequency source 108 (such as a magnetron)”) configured to supply a radiofrequency electromagnetic field to the waveguide (Fig. 2, Para. [0030]);
an oscilloscope (Fig. 4B, Para. [0039]) connected to the magnetron and configured to provide a signal indicative of an output of the magnetron (Para. [0041]);
a processor (Para. [0042]: “processor 40”) configured to receive the signal from the oscilloscope and to send data to a central server (Fig. 2, signal converters 50, mass storage 48, Para. [0036]: “processor 40 may comprise one or more computers that are connected to a remote server computer for maintaining databases”); and
a non-transitory computer-readable medium (Para. [0036]) with instructions stored thereon which (Para. [0038]: “mass storage device 48 also stores data and programs used to perform maintenance”), when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
receive data indicative of an output of the magnetron (Para. [0041]: “RF reflected power signal 3 is detected from an output of the high frequency source 108 … a magnetron”),
process the data, wherein processing the data includes:
determine a value of the output of the magnetron (Fig. 4B, Para. [0049], see also Para. [0039] describing signal converters “to generate digital representations of each of the signals”).
Welsh does not expressly disclose correlating a combination of one or more signal characteristics and one or more types of magnetron failures by analyzing a pattern in one or more of noise level, pulse width, or pulse height from a plurality of magnetrons prior to failure; and
generating a threshold based on the correlation; compare the determined value to a threshold;
based on comparing the determined value to the threshold, determine whether repair or replacement or other service of the magnetron should be scheduled, wherein to determine whether repair or replace or other service of the magnetron should be scheduled comprises determining that at least two of the following different threshold conditions are independently satisfied: i) a current trace threshold condition, ii) a voltage trace threshold condition, or iii) a machine parameter threshold condition; and
output the determination of whether repair or replacement or other service of the magnetron should be scheduled.
However, Van Roermund teaches a system for detecting hardware degradation in a particle accelerator (Abstract: “electron accelerator”),
receive data indicative of an output of the “magnetron” (Abstract: “[a]n electron accelerator including a resonant cavity, an electron source, an RF system … [t]he RF system is configured to generate an electric field to accelerate the electrons along radial trajectories”, para. [0008]: “quantities representative of a functioning of a hardware component … the quantities can relate to properties of the hardware component tha[t] can be used as diagnostic data for assessing a condition of the hardware component”, whereas a magnetron is a critical hardware component of an RF system as demonstrated by Welsh above);
process the data, wherein processing the data includes:
correlating a combination of one or more signal characteristics (Para. [0071]: “it is also possible to simultaneously measure and monitor a plurality of different quantities a, b, c, d, etc.”) and one or more types of “magnetron” failures (Para. [0071]: “variables are chosen such that each hardware failure corresponds to a unique combination of variables”) by analyzing a pattern (Para. [0070]: “insightful to investigate for periodic patterns in data”) in one or more of noise level, pulse width, or pulse height (Para. [0008]: “quantities representative of a functioning of a hardware component, can e.g. be a power consumption, an internal voltage, an internal current, a temperature, a vibration, an output power, an output quality, a noise component … the quantities can relate to properties of the hardware component that can be used as diagnostic data for assessing a condition of the hardware component”) from a plurality of “magnetrons” prior to failure (Para. [0075]: “the device can be arranged for detecting hardware degradation in a plurality of, e.g., mutually geographically remote, radiation therapy systems”); and
generating a threshold based on the correlation (Para. [0070]: [a] predetermined threshold can be defined”);
determine a value of the output of the magnetron (Para. [0008]: “quantities can relate to properties of the hardware component that can be used as diagnostic data for assessing a condition of the hardware component”),
compare the determined value to the threshold (Para. [0011]: “a threshold for signaling deviation from nominal behavior can be determined”);
based on comparing the determined value to the threshold (Para. [0011]), determine whether repair or replacement or other service of the magnetron should be scheduled (Para. [0014]), wherein to determine whether repair or replacement or other service of the magnetron should be scheduled comprises determining that at least two of the following different threshold conditions are independently satisfied: i) a current trace threshold condition, ii) a voltage trace threshold condition, or iii) a machine parameter threshold condition (Paras. [0070]-[0074]: “it is also possible to simultaneously measure and monitor a plurality of different quantities a, b, c, d, etc. … These quantities form diagnostic data that can be used as variables in identifying the defective, degrading, or otherwise dysfunctioning hardware component, or part thereof. The variables are chosen such that each hardware failure corresponds to a unique combination of variables … preferably each hardware failure corresponds to a unique combination of one or more variables”); and
output the determination of whether repair or replacement or other service of the magnetron should be scheduled (Paras. [0014]: “the quantities representative of a functioning of one or more hardware components of the system can be monitored”, and para. [0070] “[w]hen the value of x crosses the predetermined threshold an alarm may be generated and/or maintenance can be planned”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include in the radiation therapy system of Welsh the ability to monitor and determine whether repair is needed for a magnetron in a radiation therapy system as taught by Van Roermund. One of ordinary skill would be motivated to include such a feature so as to reduce down time during operation periods and prevent malfunction of hardware so as to provide an improved radiation therapy system (Paras. [0004]-[0005]).
Regarding Claim 2¸ Welsh further teaches a control unit for controlling operation of the particle accelerator (Fig. 2, treatment processing unit 32, paras. [0028], [0030]), wherein the control unit is configured to transmit data relating to operation of the particle accelerator to the central server (Fig. 2, treatment processing unit 32, paras. [0033], [0036], [0037]).
Regarding Claim 3, Welsh further teaches the control unit is configured to control operation of the particle accelerator in accordance with a treatment plan (Fig. 2, Para. [0037]), and
wherein the control unit is configured to communicate information relating to the treatment plan with the central server (Fig. 2, processor 40, mass storage 48, paras. [0036], [0037]).
Regarding Claim 4, Welsh further teaches the control unit is configured to transmit information comprising at least one of:
a length and frequency of an electron pulse delivered by the particle accelerator (Paras. [0039]-[0041]),
a total time of operation of the particle accelerator, or a total number of pulses delivered by the particle accelerator (Para. [0039]: “mass storage device 48 stores signal data received via signal converter 50”, para. [0051]: “…the input values which resulted in the peaked beam for a given dose rate are recorded and used to update dosimetry data”).
Regarding Claim 5, Welsh further teaches the signal indicative of the magnetron output (Fig. 2, magnetron 108) comprises a signal indicative of at least one of a magnetron voltage pulse or a current pulse (Para. [0041]).
Regarding Claim 6, Welsh further teaches a sensor configured to provide a signal indicative of an output of at least one other component of the particle accelerator (Fig. 2, Para. [0040]: “signal converter 50 is coupled to beam signal cables 46 to receive various operational signals from radiation therapy device 10”),
wherein the processor is further configured to send the signal indicative of the output of the at least one other component of the particle accelerator to the central server (Paras. [0036]-[0038]).
Regarding Claim 7, Welsh further teaches wherein the processor is configured to send data to the central server via at least one of an internet connection, an intranet connection, WLAN connection, or a peer-to-peer connection (Para. [0036]: “Processor 40 and mass storage device 48 may each be, for example: (i) located entirely within a single computer or other computing device; or (ii) connected to each other by a remote communication medium, such as a serial port cable, telephone line or radio frequency transceiver”).
Regarding Claim 8, Welsh further teaches the data is sent to the central server to be accessed at a location remote from the particle accelerator (Para. [0036]: “processor 40 may comprise one or more computers that are connected to a remote server computer”).
Claim(s) 10-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Publication No. 2020/0047003 by Van Roermund et al. (“Van Roermund”) in view of U.S. Publication No. 2003/0072411 by Welsh et al. ("Welsh") and US Publication No. 2019/0347590 by Rajasekaran et al. (“Rajasekaran”).
Regarding Claim 10, Van Roermund teaches a method of determining whether repair or replacement or other service of a “magnetron” (Abstract: “[a]n electron accelerator including a resonant cavity, an electron source, an RF system”, paras. [0005]: “a method and system for detecting hardware degradation in a radiation therapy system”, [0004]: “radiation therapy system includes many components such as a particle accelerator … [m]alfunction in any of such components, or parts thereof”, whereas a “magnetron” is a component in an RF system for a linear accelerator, please see rejection of claim 1 above establishing the magnetron as a component worth monitoring for failures according to Van Roermund and Welsh) should be scheduled (Para. [0070]: “an alarm may be generated and/or maintenance can be planned”), the method comprising:
receiving data indicative of an output of the “magnetron” (Para. [0008]: “[t]he quantities representative of a functioning of a hardware component … the quantities can relate to properties of the hardware component than can be used as diagnostic data”), wherein the data includes at least one of: pulse width, pulse height, or noise level measurements (Para. [0008]: “quantities representative of a functioning of a hardware component, can e.g. be a power consumption, an internal voltage, an internal current, a temperature, a vibration, an output power, an output quality, a noise component”) from at least one of: i) a magnetron current trace (Para. [0008]: internal current) or ii) a magnetron voltage trace (Para. [0008]: internal voltage) of the radiotherapy device;
processing the data to determine a value of the output of the magnetron (Para. [0008]: “quantities can relate to properties of the hardware component that can be used as diagnostic data for assessing a condition of the hardware component”), wherein processing the data includes:
correlating a combination of one or more signal characteristics (Para. [0071]: “it is also possible to simultaneously measure and monitor a plurality of different quantities a, b, c, d, etc.”) and one or more types of “magnetron” failures (Para. [0071]: “variables are chosen such that each hardware failure corresponds to a unique combination of variables”) by analyzing a pattern (Para. [0070]: “insightful to investigate for periodic patterns in data”) in at least one of noise levels, pulse widths, and pulse heights (Para. [0008]: “quantities representative of a functioning of a hardware component, can e.g. be a power consumption, an internal voltage, an internal current, a temperature, a vibration, an output power, an output quality, a noise component … the quantities can relate to properties of the hardware component that can be used as diagnostic data for assessing a condition of the hardware component”) from a plurality of magnetrons prior to failure (Para. [0075]: “the device can be arranged for detecting hardware degradation in a plurality of, e.g., mutually geographically remote, radiation therapy systems”); and
generating a threshold based on the correlation (Para. [0011]: “a threshold for signaling deviation from nominal behavior can be determined”);
comparing the determined value to the threshold (Para. [0070]);
based on the comparing the determined value to the threshold, determining whether repair or replacement or other service of the magnetron should be scheduled (Para. [0014]: “degradation in the system performance are detected, and optionally a warning is triggered, before they lead to an equipment failure”, para. [0070]: [w]hen the value of x crosses the predetermined threshold an alarm may be generated and/or maintenance can be planned”), wherein to determine whether repair or replacement of other service of the magnetron should be scheduled comprises determining that at least two different threshold conditions are satisfied from among: i) a current trace threshold condition, ii) a voltage trace threshold condition, and iii) a machine parameter threshold condition (Paras. [0071]-[0074]: “it is also possible to simultaneously measure and monitor a plurality of different quantities a, b, c, d, etc. … These quantities form diagnostic data that can be used as variables in identifying the defective, degrading, or otherwise dysfunctioning hardware component, or part thereof. The variables are chosen such that each hardware failure corresponds to a unique combination of variables … preferably each hardware failure corresponds to a unique combination of one or more variables”); and
outputting the determination of whether repair or replacement or other service of the magnetron should be scheduled (Para. [0014] “the quantities representative of a functioning of one or more hardware components of the system can be monitored”, para. [0070]: “[w]hen the value of x crosses the predetermined threshold an alarm may be generated and/or maintenance can be planned”). While Van Roermund teaches a system for detecting when repair is needed for various elements in a radiation therapy system (“which includes many components such as a particle accelerator … parts thereof”, Para. [0004]), Van Roermund does not expressly list all the various components of the radiotherapy system including the term “magnetron”, or expressly state using the data in real-time during operation of a radiotherapy device for correlation of a threshold.
Welsh however teaches receiving data indicative of a magnetron (Para. [0041]: “pulse current 1 is measured from an input to a high frequency source 108 such as a magnetron … RF reflected power signal 3 is detected from an output of the high frequency source 108 … a magnetron”), and further teaches measuring a magnetron in real-time during operation of a radiotherapy device (Para. [0049]: “operator interacts with the treatment processing unit 32 to manipulate device inputs while monitoring effects”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include in the monitoring and service determination method of Van Roermund the magnetron signals as taught by Welsh. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to include the magnetron as a component in a radiotherapy system to monitor so as “to readily verify beam performance characteristics to determine when tuning or other maintenance is required” (Para. [0009]).
While Welsh discloses monitoring and measuring various signals from a magnetron in real-time for maintenance purposes and Van Roermund discloses correlating a combination of one or more signal characteristics of radiotherapy components for failures (which would include a magnetron) by analyzing a pattern and generating a threshold based on the correlation, Van Roermund does not expressly disclose processing data from real-time operation measurements for generating a threshold.
However, Rajasekaran teaches a system wherein receiving data in real-time during operation (Abstract: “for Real Time integration and Analytics (RETINA) to enable proactive decision synchronization in real time”), processing the data to determine a value (Para. [0013]: “providing a method and apparatus to define data sources, define processing logic”), correlating a combination of one or more signal characteristics and one or more types of failures by analyzing a pattern prior to failure (Para. [0013]: “provide for pattern based matching of the faults, combining the outputs of models and patterns to provide inputs for proactive prescriptions to various business users with actionable insights that would reduce the stated operations risks in their respective areas of work”, please also see paras. [0175]-[0187] providing additional details involving determining patterns and forming rules for forecasting future events); and generating a threshold based on the correlation (Para. [0136]: “the modeling tool can be configured to have thresholds on limits … thresholds determine if the model needs to be tuned or corrected or output to be used for decision making and management … can also be dynamically computed using heuristic models to make the system adaptive”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to integrate the data signals from a plurality of magnetrons for detecting hardware failures in radiation therapy systems as taught by Welsh and Van Roermund with the real time integration and analytics system of Rajasekaran. One having ordinary skill in the art would appreciate the ability to “generate and synchronize the decisions that affect the performance and profitability of business operations in real time and helps in analysis that are essential” and “identifying impending failures, predicting future state of the process from currently measured process data and provide decision options to business users so that any unwanted opportunity loss such as downtimes or critical equipment failures that are operations risks would be eliminated” (Abstract). Additionally, this is the use of a known predictive maintenance integration system to achieve the predictable result of detecting signals from magnetrons for the purpose of preventing unplanned downtime in radiation therapy systems.
Regarding Claims 11, Van Roermund as modified by Welsh and further teaches wherein the data is indicative of a current trace of the “magnetron” output (See rejection of Claim 10 above);
and wherein processing the data to determine the value comprises determining a pulse width, a pulse height, and noise level of the current trace (Para. [0008]: “[t]he quantities representative of a functioning hardware component, can e.g., be a power consumption, an internal voltage, an internal current, a temperature, a vibration, an output power, an output quality, a noise component … the quantities can relate to properties of the hardware component that can be used as diagnostic data for assessing a condition of the hardware component”).
Regarding Claim 12, Van Roermund as modified by Welsh and Rajasekaran further teaches the data is indicative of a voltage trace of the magnetron output, and wherein processing the data to determine values comprises determining a pulse width, a pulse height, and noise level of the voltage trace (Para. [0008]: “[t]he quantities representative of a functioning hardware component, can e.g., be a power consumption, an internal voltage, an internal current, a temperature, a vibration, an output power, an output quality, a noise component … the quantities can relate to properties of the hardware component that can be used as diagnostic data for assessing a condition of the hardware component”).
Regarding Claim 13, Van Roermund as modified by Welsh and Rajasekaran further teaches the data indicative of the output of the magnetron comprises a machine parameter, and wherein processing the data comprises analyzing trending of the machine parameter (Paras. [0026]: “the step of determining a hardware degradation of a hardware component of the radiation therapy system on the basis of the determined average of the normalized value for one or more of the quantities”, [0011]: “the device is arranged for determining the predetermined value on the basis of a time development of the averages of the normalized values”, [0007]: “[t]his normalization allows to, after the averaging…to establish a trend curve of the normalized, averaged measured values, e.g. over a long period of time”).
Regarding Claim 14, Van Roermund as modified by Welsh and Rajasekaran further teaches receiving data indicative of the output of the magnetron comprises receiving at least three sets of data (Para. [0008]);
processing the data to determine the value of the output of the magnetron comprises determining a value for each set of data of the at least three sets of data (Para. [0071]: “simultaneously measure and monitor a plurality of different quantities … a dysfunctional hardware component can be identified independently of all other parts of the system and the use of the radiation therapy system”);
comparing the determined value to a threshold comprises comparing each determined value for each set of data of the at least three sets of data to a respective threshold to determine whether a condition is met (Fig. 2 shows a flow chart with steps 100 “measures values for one or more quantities”, 102 “normalize and average values”, 104 “compare with the predetermined value”, 106 “correlate with hardware failure modes”); and
when the condition is met for two or more of the determined values, determining that repair or replacement of the magnetron should be scheduled (Paras. [0014]: “degradations in the system performance are detected, and optionally a warning is triggered, before they lead to an equipment failure”, [0070]: “[w]hen the value of x crosses the predetermined threshold an alarm may be generated and/or maintenance can be planned”, and para. [0071]: “it is also possible to simultaneously measure and monitor a plurality of different quantities”).
Regarding Claim 15, Van Roermund as modified by Welsh and Rajasekaran further teaches wherein the “magnetron” is included in a linear accelerator (Abstract, para. [0004]: “radiation therapy system includes many components such as a particle accelerator”, also see rejection for Claim 10 above regarding the term “magnetron” to be included as a component in a particle accelerator).
Regarding Claim 16, Van Roermund as modified by Welsh and Rajasekaran further teaches the data indicative of the output of the first magnetron includes data indicative of at least one of a voltage pulse or a current pulse (Para. [0008]: “[t]he quantities representative of a functioning hardware component, can e.g. be a power consumption, an internal voltage, an internal current, a temperature, a vibration, an output power, an output quality, a noise component … the quantities can relate to properties of the hardware component that can be used as diagnostic data for assessing a condition of the hardware component”).
Regarding Claim 17, Van Roermund as modified by Welsh and Rajasekaran further teaches the output includes an automated alert (Para. [0070]: “[w]hen the value of x crosses the predetermined threshold an alarm may be generated and/or maintenance can be planned”).
Regarding Claim 18, Van Roermund as modified by Welsh and Rajasekaran further teaches the automated alert includes at least one of a diagnostic flowchart or an “instruction to aid in finding a fault” (Para. [0072]: “[t]wo tables can be available. A first table can include all variables measured. A second table can include all identified hardware failures. A correlation matrix may be provided indicating correlation between the variables and the hardware failures”, also para. [0074]: “the correlation matrix is generated, or updated, automatically … correlation unit 14 is arranged for receiving data representative of hardware degradation of one or more hardware components of the radiation therapy system, and for determining a unique correlation between hardware degradation of a specific hardware component and a deviation in the determined average of the normalized value for one or more quantities.”).
Regarding Claim 19, Van Roermund as modified by Welsh and Rajasekaran further teaches the data indicative of the output of the first magnetron includes “data related to a treatment plan” (Para. [0068]: “[h]ospitals sometimes modify the irradiation plan within the course of the treatment in order to deal with tumor shrinkage. The system can be arranged to automatically detect this, e.g., from a new patient ID, or by a checksum on the number of delivered spots and the total dose”).
Regarding Claim 20, Van Roermund as modified by Welsh and Rajasekaran further teaches the treatment plan includes at least one of:
a dose of radiation, a shape of a radiation beam, an angle at which radiation is delivered, or a timing of pulses of radiation delivered (Paras. [0008]: “variation in the beam position or shape related to a fluctuation in the output of a magnet power supply, etc.”, [0019]: “the one or more quantities are one or more of beam position”, [0068]: “[h]ospitals sometimes modify the irradiation plan within the course of the treatment in order to deal with tumor shrinkage. The system can be arranged to automatically detect this, e.g., from a new patient ID, or by a checksum on the number of delivered spots and the total dose”).
Regarding Claim 21, Van Roermund teaches a method of determining whether repair or replacement of a “magnetron” should be scheduled (Abstract: “[a]n electron accelerator including a resonant cavity, an electron source, an RF system”, paras. [0005]: “a method and system for detecting hardware degradation in a radiation therapy system”, [0004]: “radiation therapy system includes many components such as a particle accelerator … [m]alfunction in any of such components, or parts thereof”, whereas a “magnetron” is a component in an RF system for a linear accelerator, please see 103 rejection of claim 10 above), the method comprising:
receiving data indicative of an output of the “magnetron” (Para. [0008]: “[t]he quantities representative of a functioning of a hardware component … the quantities can relate to properties of the hardware component that can be used as diagnostic data”, para. [0025]: “storing in the memory data representative of hardware degradation of one or more hardware components of the radiation therapy system”), wherein the data includes one of pulse width, pulse height, or noise level measurements (Para. [0008]: “quantities representative of a functioning of a hardware component, can e.g. be a power consumption, an internal voltage, an internal current, a temperature, a vibration, an output power, an output quality, a noise component”) from at least one of: i) a magnetron current trace measured in real-time during operation of a radiotherapy device (Para. [0008]: internal current) or ii) a magnetron voltage trace measured in real-time during operation of the radiotherapy device (Para. [0008]: internal voltage);
processing the data to determine one or more values of the output of the magnetron (Para. [0008]: “quantities can relate to properties of the hardware component that can be used as diagnostic data for assessing a condition of the hardware component”), wherein processing the data includes determining a “noise level” in an unwanted area of at least one of the magnetron current trace or the magnetron voltage trace (Para. [0010]: [d]eviations from nominal behavior can e.g. be a drift, an oscillation and/or a jump in the average of the normalized values. Such deviation from nominal behavior can be an indication of degradation of a hardware component, or even imminent malfunction”);
comparing the determined values to a threshold (Para. [0014]), wherein the threshold is determined by:
receiving, from a plurality of magnetrons (Para. [0017]: “monitoring a plurality of radiation therapy systems”, which would include the magnetron since it is a component in a radiation therapy system, para. [0004]), data indicative of an output of each magnetron prior to failure (Para. [0014]), wherein the threshold measurement includes threshold noise levels (oscillations) in corresponding unwanted areas of at least one of the magnetron current traces and voltage traces from the plurality of magnetrons (Para. [0010]: Para. [0010]: [d]eviations from nominal behavior can e.g. be a drift, an oscillation and/or a jump in the average of the normalized values. Such deviation from nominal behavior can be an indication of degradation of a hardware component, or even imminent malfunction”, para. [0011]: “a threshold for signaling deviation from nominal behavior can be determined … drifts, oscillations and/or jumps relative to the nominal value can be detected”);
based on comparing the determined values to the threshold, determining whether repair or replacement of the magnetron should be scheduled (Para. [0014]: “degradation in the system performance are detected, and optionally a warning is triggered, before they lead to an equipment failure”), wherein determining whether repair or replacement or other service of the magnetron should be scheduled comprises determining that at least two of the following different threshold conditions are independently satisfied: i) a current trace threshold condition, ii) a voltage trace threshold condition, or iii) a machine parameter threshold condition (Paras. [0070]-[0074]: “it is also possible to simultaneously measure and monitor a plurality of different quantities a, b, c, d, etc. … These quantities form diagnostic data that can be used as variables in identifying the defective, degrading, or otherwise dysfunctioning hardware component, or part thereof. The variables are chosen such that each hardware failure corresponds to a unique combination of variables … preferably each hardware failure corresponds to a unique combination of one or more variables”); and
outputting the determination of whether the repair or replacement of the magnetron should be scheduled (Paras. [0011]: “a threshold for signaling deviation from nominal behavior”, [0014] “the quantities representative of a functioning of one or more hardware components of the system can be monitored” [0070]: “[w]hen the value of x crosses the predetermined threshold an alarm may be generated and/or maintenance can be planned”). While Van Roermund teaches a system for detecting when repair is needed for various elements in a radiation therapy system (“which includes many components such as a particle accelerator … parts thereof”, para. [0004], also see para. [0005]: “to provide an improved, or at least alternative, method and system for detecting hardware degradation in a radiation therapy system”), Van Roermund does not expressly list all the various components of the radiotherapy system including the term “magnetron”, or expressly state using the data in real-time during operation of a radiotherapy device for correlation of a threshold.
Welsh however teaches receiving data indicative of a magnetron (Para. [0041]: “pulse current 1 is measured from an input to a high frequency source 108 such as a magnetron … RF reflected power signal 3 is detected from an output of the high frequency source 108 … a magnetron”), and further teaches measuring a magnetron in real-time during operation of a radiotherapy device (Para. [0049]: “operator interacts with the treatment processing unit 32 to manipulate device inputs while monitoring effects”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include in the monitoring and service determination method of Van Roermund the magnetron signals as taught by Welsh. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to include the magnetron of an RF system as a component to monitor so as “to readily verify beam performance characteristics to determine when tuning or other maintenance is required” (Para. [0009]).
While Welsh discloses monitoring and measuring various signals from a magnetron in real-time for maintenance purposes and Van Roermund discloses correlating a combination of one or more signal characteristics of radiotherapy components for failures (which would include a magnetron) by analyzing a pattern and generating a threshold based on the correlation, Van Roermund does not expressly disclose processing data from real-time operation measurements for generating a threshold.
However, Rajasekaran teaches a system wherein receiving data in real-time during operation (Abstract: “for Real Time integration and Analytics (RETINA) to enable proactive decision synchronization in real time”), processing the data to determine a value (Para. [0013]: “providing a method and apparatus to define data sources, define processing logic”), correlating a combination of one or more signal characteristics and one or more types of failures by analyzing a pattern prior to failure (Para. [0013]: “provide for pattern based matching of the faults, combining the outputs of models and patterns to provide inputs for proactive prescriptions to various business users with actionable insights that would reduce the stated operations risks in their respective areas of work”, please also see paras. [0175]-[0187] providing additional details involving determining patterns and forming rules for forecasting future events); and generating a threshold based on the correlation (Para. [0136]: “the modeling tool can be configured to have thresholds on limits … thresholds determine if the model needs to be tuned or corrected or output to be used for decision making and management … can also be dynamically computed using heuristic models to make the system adaptive”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to integrate the data signals from a plurality of magnetrons for detecting hardware failures in radiation therapy systems as taught by Welsh and Van Roermund with the real time integration and analytics system of Rajasekaran. One having ordinary skill in the art would appreciate the ability to “generate and synchronize the decisions that affect the performance and profitability of business operations in real time and helps in analysis that are essential” and “identifying impending failures, predicting future state of the process from currently measured process data and provide decision options to business users so that any unwanted opportunity loss such as downtimes or critical equipment failures that are operations risks would be eliminated” (Abstract). Additionally, this is the use of a known predictive maintenance integration system to achieve the predictable result of detecting signals from magnetrons for the purpose of preventing unplanned downtime in radiation therapy systems.
Regarding Claim 22, Van Roermund further teaches outputting the determination includes outputting an automated message indicating which of one or more of: i) repair of the magnetron, ii) replacement of the magnetron, or iii) adjustment of one or more parameters of the magnetron is determined to be needed based on comparing the determined values to the threshold (Paras. [0011]: “a threshold for signaling deviation from nominal behavior”, [0014] “degradations in the system performance are detected, and optionally a warning is triggered, before they lead to an equipment failure … the quantities representative of a functioning of one or more hardware components of the system can be monitored”, [0070]: “[w]hen the value of x crosses the predetermined threshold an alarm may be generated and/or maintenance can be planned”).
Conclusion
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/DANIEL WARD HATTEN/ Examiner, Art Unit 3761
/TOPAZ L. ELLIOTT/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3761
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