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 § 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(s) 1, 3 – 6, 10, 11, 13 – 16, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Brown et al (US 2018/0246207) in view of Hasegawa et al (US 2020/0069287).
Brown et al discloses, regarding,
Claim 1, An ultrasonic transducer, comprising: an ultrasonic transducer unit array, comprising: a plurality of first array units (see Figs. 1, 2), wherein at least two adjacent ones of the plurality of first array units are arranged along a first direction to form a first series string (see Fig. 6A); and a plurality of second array units, wherein at least two adjacent ones of the plurality of second array units are arranged along a second direction to form a second series string (see Fig. 6A); the first series string and the second series string are intersected; and the first direction and the second direction form a non-180° angle (see Fig. 6A); and a circuit layer, disposed on one side of the ultrasonic transducer unit array (see Fig. 4A).
The problem to be solve appears to show explicitly wiring connections in between the arrays. Such implementation is well-known in the art. For example, Hasegawa et al discloses, a first bridging unit (see Figs. 2, 3), connected in series with the plurality of first array units; and a second bridging unit, connected in series with the plurality of second array units (see Figs. 8, 9); wherein the second bridging unit and the first bridging unit are not directly electrically connected to each other (since the different arrays interact with each other; 0030, 0034).
The Prior Art further discloses, regarding,
Claims 3, 13, a first wire connecting the first series string and a second wire connecting the second series string (Brown et al, Figs. 4A, 6A; Hasegawa et al, Figs. 2, 3).
Claims 4, 14, the plurality of first array units have a first pitch; the plurality of second array units have a second pitch; and the first pitch is greater than the second pitch (Hasegawa et al, Fig. 2).
Claims 5, 15, a grounding layer disposed on one side of the ultrasonic transducer array away from the circuit layer, and is electrically connected to the first series string, the second series string or a combination thereof (Hasegawa et al, Fig. 3).
Claims 6, 16, the first bridging unit further comprises a first channel bridge correspondingly electrically connected to the plurality of first array units; and the second bridging unit further comprises a second channel bridge correspondingly electrically connected to the plurality of second array units (Hasegawa et al, Fig. 2; Brown et al, Fig. 4A).
Claim 10, at least one of the plurality of first array units and the plurality of second array units comprises a lead zirconate titanate (PZT ceramic) ultrasonic transducer unit, a piezoelectric micromachined (Hasegawa et al, 0006) ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) unit, a capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) unit, or any combination of the above three.
Claim 20, the circuit layer is a FPC board (since such device is commonly used in many electronic devices; see Hasegawa et al, Fig 10; 0088).
Claim 11, An ultrasonic probe, comprising: a casing; and an ultrasonic transducing unit array is arranged on one side of the casing (Hasegawa et al, Figs. 10, 11), wherein the ultrasonic transducing unit array comprises: a plurality of first array units, wherein at least two adjacent ones of the plurality of first array units are arranged along a first direction to form a first series string; and a plurality of second array units, wherein at least two adjacent ones of the plurality of second array units are arranged along a second direction to form a second series string; the first series string and the second series string are intersected; and the first direction and the second direction form a non-180° angle; and a circuit layer, disposed on one side of the ultrasonic transducer unit array and comprising: a first bridging unit, connected in series with the plurality of first array units; and a second bridging unit, connected in series with the plurality of second array units; wherein the second bridging unit and the first bridging unit are not directly electrically connected to each other (see rejection for claim 1 above).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to design the transducer/probe as disclosed by Brown et al and to modify the invention per the limitations disclosed by Hasegawa et al for the purpose of improving the performance of an ultrasonic probe.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 7 – 9, 12, 17 – 19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Julio C. Gonzalez whose telephone number is (571)272-2024. The examiner can normally be reached M-F.
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/Julio C. Gonzalez/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2831
July 9, 2026
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