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 .
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 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.
DETAILED ACTION
Claims status
Claims 1-10 are pending as the applicant filed on 11/03/2023.
Citation of Relevant Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure. See MPEP 707.05. Although the prior art discloses several unclaimed, some claimed limitation. The closest Prior Art of record are considered to be defined by:
Vuong (US 8765231 B2) described a method for aligning and building nanostructures. A substrate is coated with a liquid solution comprising particles or a liquid volume is employed. Circularly-polarized light is applied to the sample to photo-induce a magnetic response in the particles. A low strength magnetic field is then applied. The induced magnetization of the particles aligns with the applied magnetic field. The solution is permitted to cure, melt, or assemble while simultaneously influenced by both the circularly-polarized light and the applied magnetic field. The illumination intensity of light and applied magnetic fields are permitted to change in time. The resulting composite retains memory of the method of processing in the particle alignment and organization.
Didomenico (US 12345993 B2) described a dielectrophoresis-based device for scattering input light, comprising: (a) a plurality of distinct and separate particles; (b) at least one transparent medium; (c) at least one light scattering control volume; (d) at least one source of electromagnetic fields; wherein said plurality of distinct and separate particles is mixed with said at least one transparent medium to form a substantially transparent non-solid medium, which is a mixture, and where said plurality of distinct and separate particles can flow in said mixture within said at least one light scattering control volume, where there are also electromagnetic fields from said at least one source of electromagnetic fields, so that at least one of forces, torques, and stresses on each of said plurality of particles may exist by means of dielectrophoresis, which allows at least one of the position, orientation, and shape of some portion of said plurality of distinct and separate particles to change by forced diffusion processes so that optical properties of said mixture can change, so that said input light interacts with said mixture by at least one of traversing the mixture directly and traversing the mixture by evanescent fields at an optical boundary between said mixture and a region external to said at least one light scattering control volume; wherein said input light can be transformed into output light having different properties including at least one of direction, linear momentum, spin angular momentum, polarization, orbital angular momentum, irradiance, frequency, photon energy, angular spread, power, and information content, all by a graded refractive index that is created in both time and space as needed by controlling said at least one source of electromagnetic fields.
Sarabandi (US 6933812 B2) described an artificial electro-ferromagnetic meta-material demonstrates the design of tunable band-gap and tunable bi-anisotropic materials. The medium is obtained using a composite mixture of dielectric, ferro-electric, and metallic materials arranged in a periodic fashion. By changing the intensity of an applied DC field the permeability of the artificial electro-ferromagnetic can be properly varied over a particular range of frequency. The structure shows excellent Electromagnetic Band-Gap (EBG) behavior with a band-gap frequency that can be tuned by changing the applied DC field intensity. The building block of the electro-ferromagnetic material is composed of miniaturized high Q resonant circuits embedded in a low-loss dielectric background. The resonant circuits are constructed from metallic loops terminated with a printed capacitor loaded with a ferro-electric material. Modifying the topology of the embedded-circuit, a bi-anisotropic material (tunable) is examined. The embedded-circuit meta-material is treated theoretically using a transmission line analogy of a medium supporting TEM waves.
Mansuripur (US 4838695 A) described utilizes a polarized light source to illuminate a magnetooptic material so as to measure its reflective characteristics. Two detectors are mounted so as to measure the orthogonal components of the electric field intensity of the reflected polarized light. One measures the parallel component of the signal, and the other the perpendicular component.
In a preferred embodiment, the magnetooptic material is covered by a transparent protective layer to avoid any degradation of the material's surface. Due to reflection and refraction of light by the protective layer an additional lens is interposed between the layer and the light source. One embodiment utilizes a hemispherical lens having an index of refraction matching that of the protective layer. Light incident from various angles upon the magnetooptic material and its protective layer always enters the lens at a right angle. A film is placed between the lens and layer having essentially the same index of refraction as both the lens and layer so that light transmitted through the lens, the film, and the layer is not refracted or reflected prior to reaching the magnetooptic surface. Any losses due to the optics of the system can be calculated by removing the sample to allow total internal reflection by the lens. The measured signals can then be normalized by this totally reflected light.
A preferred embodiment utilizes a pulsed electromagnet to reverse the direction of magnetization of the material. This permits sign reversal of the reflection coefficient r.perp., while leaving other parameters intact.
The apparatus permits the calculation of the complex reflection coefficients of light absorbing, anisotropic and magnetooptic media. These values can be determined as a function of the angle of incidence of the polarized light on the magnetooptic material. The orientation of polarization of both the incident light and the reflected light can be adjusted.
an adjustable phase delay can be introduced between the reflected parallel and perpendicular polarization components. The phase delay is determined so as to create independent observations of the magnitudes and phases of the complex reflection coefficient.
Vukovic (US 2003/0232151 A1) described a method of energizing a high density plasma in a semiconductor wafer processing apparatus comprising: providing an RF plasma source that includes an RF generator connected to an RF antenna located outside of a dielectric window in the wall of a processing chamber of the apparatus; generating a static magnetic field that is generally uniform in a region extending from the dielectric window and into the chamber through a mode conversion region within the chamber that is spaced a distance from the window with the electron temperature Te in electron volts, the static magnetic field strength BDC in Gauss and gas pressure p in millitorr in said region approximately satisfying the relation: BDC>0.76p{square root}{square root over (Te)} and with the magnetic field lines of BDC being curved so as to expel plasma in a direction away from the dielectric window; launching a whistler wave W from the antenna through the window and into the chamber with RF current IRF in the antenna perpendicular to BDC and the electric field EW of the whistler wave W perpendicular to BDC, and with EW and BDC parallel to the plane of the dielectric window; and converting the whistler wave W to an EC wave by approximately satisfying the relationship in the mode conversion region among the characteristic antenna wavelength λ in centimeters, the frequency f of the generator in Hertz, the local static magnetic field strength B in Gauss and the plasma density ne in electrons per square centimeter.
Rostoker (US 2005/0179394 A1) described a method of forming a magnetic field of field reverse topology and confining plasma comprising the steps of injecting a plasma into a chamber, applying a magnetic field to form a first magnetic field in the chamber having unidirectional field lines, injecting ion beams into the chamber substantially transverse to the first magnetic field, trapping the ion beams in betatron orbits within the first magnetic field, forming a rotating beam plasma within the chamber having a current, the beam plasma comprising ions and electrons, forming a second magnetic field about the rotating beam plasma having external field lines outside the rotating plasma extending in a same direction as the field lines of the first magnetic field and internal field lines extending in an opposite direction to the field lines of the first magnetic field, injecting a current through a betatron flux coil in the chamber, inducing an azimuthal electric field inside the chamber, increasing the rotating beam plasma's rotational velocity, increasing the second magnetic field's magnitude beyond the magnitude of the first magnetic field, reversing the direction of the internal field within the rotating plasma and forming a combined magnetic field of field reverse topology (FRC), generating an electrostatic field, magnetically confining a plurality of the beam plasma ions, and electrostatically confining a plurality of the beam plasma electrons.
Rostoker (US 2010/0181915 A1) described an apparatus and method for containing plasma and forming a Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) magnetic topology are described in which plasma ions are contained magnetically in stable, non-adiabatic orbits in the FRC. Further, the electrons are contained electrostatically in a deep energy well, created by tuning an externally applied magnetic field. The simultaneous electrostatic confinement of electrons and magnetic confinement of ions avoids anomalous transport and facilitates classical containment of both electrons and ions. In this configuration, ions and electrons may have adequate density and temperature so that upon collisions ions are fused together by nuclear force, thus releasing fusion energy. Moreover, the fusion fuel plasmas that can be used with the present confinement system and method are not limited to neutronic fuels only, but also advantageously include advanced fuels.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more.
Claim 1, Step 1 the claim is a process (or machine) (Yes),
Step 2A Prong One, does the claim recite an abstract idea? current claim related to a method for processing anisotropic magnetized plasma medium, comprising: obtaining a Maxwell equation and a polarization current density equation based on electromagnetic characteristics of anisotropic magnetized plasma; processing the Maxwell equation and the polarization current density equation to obtain an electric field intensity, a magnetic field intensity, and a polarization current density after processed appears an abstract idea of mental process (MPEP 2106.04(a)) or data gathering equivalent to mathematical concept or mathematical manipulation function (MPEP 2106.04 (a) (2) (concept need not be expressed in mathematical symbols, because "[w]ords used in a claim operating on data to solve a problem can serve the same purpose as a formula), (OR Mathematical Concepts and Mental Processes) Step 2A Prong One: Yes.
Step 2A Prong Two, is the claim directed to an abstract idea? In other words, does claim recite additional elements that integrate the Judicial Exception into a practical application? the additional elements of using a matrix exponential time-domain finite difference method to obtain numerical iterative equations for the electric field intensity, the magnetic field intensity, and the polarization current density in anisotropic magnetized plasma medium based on the electric field intensity, the magnetic field intensity, and the polarization current density after processed are recited at a high level of generality and merely amount to a particular field of use (see MPEP 2106.05(h)) and/or insignificant post-solution activity (MPEP 2106.05(g)), this does not integrate the Judicial Exception into a practical application,
Step 2A Prong Two: NO.
Step 2B, Does the claim recite additional element that amount to significantly more than the Judicial exception? the additional element of applying a numerical modeling simulation electromagnetic model to determine electromagnetic characteristics of the electromagnetic model according to the numerical iterative equations for the electric field intensity, the magnetic field intensity, and the polarization current density in the anisotropic magnetized plasma medium appears to be field of use (See MPEP 2106.05(h) and MPEP 2106.05(f)) and/or merely amounts to insignificant extra-solution output of the results (see MPEP 2106.05(g)) and therefore fails to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application or amount to significantly more. Step 2B: No. claim 1 not eligible.
Claim 6, Step 1 the claim is a process (or machine) (Yes),
Step 2A Prong One, does the claim recite an abstract idea? current claim related to a system for processing anisotropic magnetized plasma medium, comprising: a Maxwell equation and polarization current density equation determination module, configured to obtain a Maxwell equation and a polarization current density equation based on electromagnetic characteristics of anisotropic magnetized plasma; a Maxwell equation and polarization current density equation processing module, configured to process the Maxwell equation and the polarization current density equation to obtain the electric field intensity, the magnetic field intensity, and the polarization current density after processed appears an abstract idea of mental process (MPEP 2106.04(a)) or data gathering equivalent to mathematical concept or mathematical manipulation function (MPEP 2106.04 (a) (2) (concept need not be expressed in mathematical symbols, because "[w]ords used in a claim operating on data to solve a problem can serve the same purpose as a formula), (OR Mathematical Concepts and Mental Processes) Step 2A Prong One: Yes.
Step 2A Prong Two, is the claim directed to an abstract idea? In other words, does claim recite additional elements that integrate the Judicial Exception into a practical application? the additional elements of a matrix exponential time-domain finite difference processing module, configured to obtain numerical iterative equations for electric field intensity, magnetic field intensity, and polarization current density in anisotropic magnetized plasma medium using the matrix exponential time-domain finite difference method based on the electric field intensity, the magnetic field intensity, and the polarization current density after processed are recited at a high level of generality and merely amount to a particular field of use (see MPEP 2106.05(h)) and/or insignificant post-solution activity (MPEP 2106.05(g)), this does not integrate the Judicial Exception into a practical application,
Step 2A Prong Two: NO.
Step 2B, Does the claim recite additional element that amount to significantly more than the Judicial exception? the additional element of an electromagnetic characteristic determination module, configured to determine electromagnetic characteristics of the electromagnetic model using a numerical modeling simulation electromagnetic model based on the numerical iterative equations of the electric field intensity, the magnetic field intensity, and the polarization current density in the anisotropic magnetized plasma medium appears to be field of use (See MPEP 2106.05(h) and MPEP 2106.05(f)) and/or merely amounts to insignificant extra-solution output of the results (see MPEP 2106.05(g)) and therefore fails to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application or amount to significantly more. Step 2B: No. claim 6 not eligible.
Claims analysis for claim 2-5 and 7-10 as the dependent claims appears recite further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claims 2-5 and 7-10 not eligible as well.
Contact information
4. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Tung Lau whose telephone number is (571)272-2274, email is Tungs.lau@uspto.gov. The examiner can normally be reached on Tuesday-Friday 7:00 AM-5:00 PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, TURNER SHELBY, can be reached on 571-272-6334. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TUNG S LAU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2857
Technology Center 2800
January 20, 2026