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 § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Sakamoto et al. (JP2019-136167).
Regarding claim 1, Sakamoto teaches an energy modulating device used for a particle beam irradiating device that transports, by a beam transport line, a charged particle beam extracted from an accelerator and delivers the charged particle beam by a scanning method using a scanning magnet 23, the energy modulating device comprising a filter member 17 having a plurality of openings through which at least a part of the charged particle beam passes 53a-d, the openings penetrating the filter member in a thickness direction, wherein the filter member is one of two or more filter members overlapped 53a-d in the thickness direction (para 8-10, 12-15, 39-45, figures 1-2, 20-32).
Regarding claim 2, Sakamoto teaches the filter member includes a filter material, and at least one filter material of remaining of the two or more filter members is disposed within a range of the openings of the filter member as viewed in a traveling direction of the charged particle beam (para 43-47, figure 31).
Regarding claim 3, Sakamoto teaches the filter member includes an overlapping position in the range of the openings, the overlapping position being a position at which two or more filter materials of the remaining of the filter members overlap in the traveling direction of the charged particle beam, and as viewed in the traveling direction of the charged particle beam, a number of overlapping filter materials at a certain position within a range of one of the openings is different from a number of overlapping filter materials at another overlapping position that is different from the certain position within the range of the opening (para 45, figure 31).
Regarding claim 4, Sakamoto teaches the filter member includes the plurality of openings that have the same shape and that are regularly arranged (figures 27-30).
Regarding claim 5, Sakamoto teaches each of the plurality of filter members is overlapped with another filter member with at least one of a position and an angle in a planar direction being shifted from one another (para 8-10, 12-15, 39-45, figure 1, 20-32).
Regarding claim 6, Sakamoto teaches a particle beam irradiating device comprising: an accelerator that accelerates a charged particle beam; a beam transport line that transports the charged particle beam extracted from the accelerator; and a beam irradiation unit that delivers the charged particle beam, wherein the beam irradiation unit includes the energy modulating device according to any one of claims 1 (para 15).
Regarding claim 7, Sakamoto teaches a particle beam irradiating method comprising: accelerating charged particles by an accelerator that accelerates a charged particle beam; transporting the charged particle beam extracted from the accelerator by a beam transport line; and delivering an irradiation target with the charged particle beam by a beam irradiation unit, wherein the beam irradiation unit includes the energy modulating device according to claim 1, the number of the filter members constituting the energy modulating device is changed according to the irradiation target (para 8-10, 12-15, 39-45, figure 1, 20-32).
Regarding claim 8, Sakamoto teaches a particle-beam radiation therapy planning device comprising: an energy modulating device setting unit that sets the energy modulating device according to any one of claim 1; a modeling unit that models a dose distribution of the charged particle beam transmitted through the energy modulating device set by the energy modulating device setting unit; a dose calculation unit that calculates the dose distribution of the charged particle beam; and an optimization calculation unit that optimizes a particle-beam radiation therapy plan based on the dose distribution calculated by the dose calculation unit (para 8-10, 12-15, 39-45, figure 1, 20-32).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HOON K SONG whose telephone number is (571)272-2494. The examiner can normally be reached M to Th 10am to 7pm.
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/HOON K SONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2884
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