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 with traverse of claims 1-19 in the reply filed on 7/15/2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that there cannot possibly be a serious search burden. This is not found persuasive because while the Examiner acknowledges the concern, the restriction has essentially been issued to replace the previous office action. Similarly.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claims 10-24 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 7/15/2026.
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 1-3, 5-6, and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ge (2017, National Science Review; advanced access publication).
Regarding claim 1, Ge discloses a non-Hermitian complementary metamaterial (NHCMM) [[pg. 168, col. 1-2 bridging] Non-Hermitian acoustic systems have been constructed in several designs and it is possible to introduce topological phases into these systems. Acoustic systems provide a superior platform for studying topological physics and its extensive ramifications, which in turn leads to a fascinating way to manipulate acoustic waves; [pg. 168, sec. acoustic metamaterials]; [fig. 7c] the complementary material can acoustically cancel out the aberrating layers, such as the skull, in medical imaging applications; [pg. 172, col. 2] type of complementary material with negative acoustic index was proposed (Fig. 7c) to cancel the aberrating intermediate layers between source and target and thereby allow high transmission of ultrasound in medical imaging applications [154]; 154. Shen C, Xu J and Fang NX et al. Anisotropic complementary acoustic metamaterial for canceling out aberrating layers. Phys Rev X 2014; 4: 041033.].
Regarding claim 2, Ge teaches the NHCMM of Claim 1 comprising: resonating structures [[abstract] acoustic metamaterials with localized resonant units in subwavelength scale]; and active gain elements [[pg. 176, col. 1] active components as a gain medium]; wherein negative real parts of the NHCMM are realized by the resonating structures [[pg. 168, col. 2] mass density and bulk modulus are two key parameters of acoustic materials … the dynamic effective mass density of the locally resonant building block (Fig. 5a) is negative due to the relative out-of-phase motions between the center mass and the host matrix material near the resonance frequency.]; and wherein imaginary parts of the NHCMM are contributed by the active gain elements [[pg. 176, col. 1] alternative approach is to introduce active components as a gain medium, to compensate the losses. The balanced loss–gain system not only supports lossless wave transmission, but also introduces a variety of intriguing phenomena in wave manipulation that may be regarded as the result of tuning the imaginary part of the refractive index].
Regarding claim 3, Ge teaches the NHCMM of Claim 1, wherein the NHCMM is an isotropic metamaterial [[pg. 160, col. 2] transformation acoustics and invisibility cloaking require anisotropic and spatially varying acoustic materials that can only be satisfied by acoustic metamaterials [45]; [pg. 168-169, sec. acoustic metamaterials negative effective parameters in acoustic metamaterials] recently, a 3D isotropic double negative material was experimentally realized by utilizing soft macro porous microbeads [116].].
Regarding claim 5, Ge teaches the system comprising the NHCMM of Claim 1; wherein the NHCMM is configured to add a first amount of energy amplification coherently to an acoustic wave passing therethrough to account for an energy loss in the acoustic wave as a result of the wave propagating through a specimen [[pg. 176, col. 1-2 bridging] the inevitable presence of dissipation in acoustic metamaterials can limit the efficiency of the devices. It is therefore desirable to minimize the inherent losses, which is sometimes difficult to realize. An alternative approach is to introduce active components as a gain medium, to compensate the losses … control optical and acoustic waves. The field of PT photonics has drawn considerable attention and numerous intriguing phenomena have been demonstrated, such as unidirectional transparency [199], coherent perfect absorber (CPA) lasers [200], nonreciprocal propagation [201], and single-mode lasing [202]. In order to construct PT-symmetric acoustic systems, it is crucial to introduce the gain and loss elements for acoustic waves [46]. Several feasible designs have been proposed. For airborne sound, loudspeakers loaded with electronic circuits can be utilized as tunable unit cells to meet the desired loss and gain conditions by actively absorbing or injecting energy [47,203,204]. Elastic waves propagating in a piezoelectric semiconductor slab can be amplified or attenuated by controlling the electric bias. By delicately stacking slabs biased in different directions, the PT-symmetric condition can be realized in theory [205].].
Regarding claim 6, Ge teaches the system of Claim 5, wherein the NHCMM is configured as a layer; wherein the layer of NHCMM is configured to add a first amount of energy amplification coherently to an acoustic wave passing therethrough to account for an energy loss in the acoustic wave as a result of the wave propagating through the specimen [[pg. 176, col. 2] elastic waves propagating in a piezoelectric semiconductor slab can be amplified or attenuated by controlling the electric bias. By delicately stacking slabs biased in different directions, the PT-symmetric condition can be realized in theory [205].]; and wherein the NHCMM is positioned proximate the specimen [[fig. 7] (c) The complementary material can acoustically cancel out the aberrating layers, such as the skull, in medical imaging applications.].
Regarding claim 8, Ge teaches the system of Claim 5 further comprising: an acoustic wave generator configured to generate an acoustic wave and propagate the acoustic wave through the specimen [[pg. 176, col. 2] In order to construct PT-symmetric acoustic systems, it is crucial to introduce the gain and loss elements for acoustic waves [46]. Several feasible designs have been proposed. For airborne sound, loudspeakers loaded with electronic circuits can be utilized as tunable unit cells to meet the desired loss and gain conditions by actively absorbing or injecting energy [47,203,204].]; wherein the NHCMM is configured to add a first amount of energy amplification coherently to the acoustic wave passing therethrough to account for the energy loss in the acoustic wave as a result of the wave propagating through the specimen [[pg. 176, col. 1-2 bridging] the inevitable presence of dissipation in acoustic metamaterials can limit the efficiency of the devices. It is therefore desirable to minimize the inherent losses, which is sometimes difficult to realize. An alternative approach is to introduce active components as a gain medium, to compensate the losses … control optical and acoustic waves.; [fig. 7] (c) The complementary material can acoustically cancel out the aberrating layers, such as the skull, in medical imaging applications.].
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ge (2017, National Science Review) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Zhu (2016, Key Laboratory of Modern Acoustics; ids).
Regarding claim 4, Ge does not explicitly teach and yet Zhu teaches the NHCMM of Claim 1, wherein the NHCMM inherently embodies the non-conservation of energy [[abstract] Non-Hermitian systems always play a negative role in wave manipulations due to inherent non conservation of energy as well as loss of information Recently, however, there has been a paradigm shift on utilizing non Hermitian systems to implement varied miraculous wave controlling.].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success that when reading about the non-Hermitian systems as taught by Ge, with the benefit of Zhu would have understood that Non-Hermitian systems always play a negative role in wave manipulations due to inherent non conservation because loss is an inherent phenomenon accompanied with varied forms of energy… in acoustics … caused by viscosity or impedance mismatch between two contrasted media … and it is undesired for most cases in acoustic wave manipulation, owing to the fact that energy is non conserved and the information carried by sound signal is lost. (Zhu) [[pg. 3]].
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ge (2017, National Science Review) as applied to claim 5 above, and further in view of Shen (2014, Physical Review X; ids).
Regarding claim 7, Ge does not explicitly teach and yet Shen teaches the system of Claim 5 further comprising: a processing system comprising one or more processors [[abstract] ultrasound imaging; [pg. 1] medical ultrasound]; and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processing system [[pg. 6, col. 1] transcranial ultrasound imaging], cause the system to: calculate an impedance mismatch and an intrinsic loss of the specimen, based at least in part on a first bulk modulus and a first density of the NHCMM, and a second bulk modulus and a second density of the specimen [[pg. 4, col. 1] density and sound speed of the background medium (water) and the aberrating layer are 1000 kg/m3, 1500 m/s and 2000 kg/m3, 2500 m/s, respectively. The properties of the aberrating layer are chosen so that it mimics human skulls. The acoustic impedance of the aberrating layer is therefore over 3.3 times larger than the background medium, providing a sufficient amount of mismatch. Figure 3 shows that at 50 kHz, the density and compressibility of CMM satisfy Eqs. (7) and (8) for the given materials: The density is −1000 kg/m3 and −4000 kg/m3 in the x and y directions, respectively; the compressibility is −1.6 × 10−10]; and alter the NHCMM to compensate for the calculated impedance mismatch and the intrinsic loss [[pg. 4] active acoustic source. Since the CMM would effectively cancel out the aberrating layer … when the CMM is used, the transmission acoustic energy is significantly enhanced compared to the one without the CMM, indicating that the reflected acoustic energy is also considerably reduced and the aberrating layer is acoustically canceled out.].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to implement the active gain non-Hermitian system as taught by Ge, with the acoustic complementary metamaterial as taught by Shen since the influence of the skull aberrating layer will be effectively acoustically canceled out. (Shen) [[pg. 4]].
Conclusion
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/JONATHAN D ARMSTRONG/ Examiner, Art Unit 3645
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