DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
Claims 1, 19, 21, and 23 are amended.
Claims 15, 18, 20, and 22 are canceled.
Claims 1-14, 16, 17, 19, 21, and 23 are pending.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-14, 16, 17, 19, 21, and 23 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 8, 9, 12-14, 16, 19, 21, 23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bendahan ‘651 (US 20190137651 A1) in view of Maitrejean (US 20230324568 A1).
Regarding Claim 1: Bendahan ‘651 discloses an apparatus configured to inspect cargo, the cargo and the apparatus having a mutual scan movement substantially along a scan direction during inspection, comprising:
at least one source configured to generate penetrating radiation, the apparatus being configured to, using the at least one source, generate a plurality of radiation emission zones (Figs. 3A and 3C, 320) configured to:
at least partially surround the cargo in a plane substantially perpendicular to the scan direction (Figs. 3A and 3C), and to
selectively and alternately irradiate the cargo ([0125]: “The source is scanned so that each source point emits X-rays for a respective period, the emitting periods being arranged in a predetermined order.”),
the plurality of radiation emission zones comprising at least three radiation emission zones (Fig. 3A); and
a plurality of detectors configured to surround the cargo in at least one detection plane substantially perpendicular to the scan direction, and to detect the penetrating radiation after transmission through the cargo (Figs. 3A and 3C, 304),
wherein at least some of the plurality of detectors are configured to form a continuous array of detectors all around the cargo in a single plane substantially perpendicular to the scan direction (Fig. 3A),
wherein each radiation emission zone in the plurality of radiation emission zones is configured to emit a fan of penetrating radiation towards the cargo in a general direction of emission different from other radiation emission zones in the plurality of radiation emission zones (Fig. 3A; [0144]: “…X-ray source points 320 emit fan beams which have different beam angles based on the location of the X-ray source points with respect to the imaging volume”),
wherein each radiation emission zone is associated with a group of the plurality of detectors corresponding to the fan of penetrating radiation emitted by the radiation emission zone (Fig. 3A),
wherein two respective groups of the plurality of detectors associated with two respective adjacent radiation emission zones selectively and alternately generating penetrating radiation in the plurality of radiation emission zones are configured to share at least two detectors so that the two respective groups partly overlap each other (Fig. 3A),
wherein the plurality of detectors are static with respect to the cargo in a plane substantially perpendicular to the scan direction (Fig. 3A, 3B), and
wherein the apparatus is configured to output image data for generating one or more images of the cargo based on the penetrating radiation detected by each group of detectors (Fig. 7).
Bendahan ‘651 fails to teach:
wherein each detector comprises a plurality of stacked detector elements in a plane substantially perpendicular to the scan direction, each of the detector elements comprising a scintillator, a photosensor and an associated electronic channel, and
wherein the apparatus is further configured to determine a flux of the penetrating radiation incident on each detector of a respective group, based on signal data obtained for each detector element in the group, and to output the image data based on the determined flux.
Maitrejean teaches an array of detectors wherein each detector comprises a plurality of stacked detector elements in a plane substantially perpendicular to the scan direction (Fig. 2), each of the detector elements comprising a scintillator, a photosensor and an associated electronic channel ([0003]: “…the detectors (such as scintillator/photodiodes-based detectors…”), and
wherein the apparatus is further configured to determine a flux of the penetrating radiation incident on each detector of a respective group, based on signal data obtained for each detector element in the group (Abstract), and to output the image data based on the determined flux ([0039]: “An inspection image of the cargo 3 may be generated using the flux of inspection radiation 1 incident on rows 41 of the array 4…”).
It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art to have modified Bendahan to incorporate the teachings of Maitrejean and provide a plurality of stacked detector elements and determine a flux incident on each detector. One would be motivated to make such a modification on the basis of improving spatial resolution and generating an inspection image without the need for the detectors to be aligned towards the focal spot of the radiation source.
Regarding Claim 2: Bendahan ‘651 in view of Maitrejean discloses the apparatus of claim 1, configured to process the image data so that the processed image data contains volumetric information about the cargo (Bendahan ‘651: Fig. 7).
Regarding Claim 3: Bendahan ‘651 in view of Maitrejean discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one source comprises:
at least one electron acceleration device, and
at least one Bremsstrahlung target associated with the at least one electron acceleration device for generating the penetrating radiation (Bendahan ‘651: [0137]: “…the source points 320 (also referred to as electron guns or emitters)…”).
Regarding Claim 8: Bendahan ‘651 in view of Maitrejean discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one source is configured to be static with respect to the cargo in a plane substantially perpendicular to the scan direction (Bendahan ‘651: Fig. 3A).
Regarding Claim 9: Bendahan ‘651 in view of Maitrejean discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one source is configured to move with respect to the cargo in a plane substantially perpendicular to the scan direction (Maitrejean: [0026]: “…the inspection radiation source may be moved with respect to the array of detector cells”).
Regarding Claim 12: Bendahan ‘651 in view of Maitrejean discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein each group of the plurality of detectors is configured to be associated with the radiation emission zone configured to emit the corresponding fan of penetrating radiation by absence of readings of detection of penetrating radiation by detectors which are not part of the group, optionally wherein the apparatus further comprises a selector configured to control the readings based on the groups (Bendahan ‘651: Fig. 3A).
Regarding Claim 13: Bendahan ‘651 in view of Maitrejean discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of radiation emission zones comprises n radiation emission zones, such that:
3<n≤1000 (Bendahan ‘651: Fig. 3A shows more than 3 but less than 1000 emitters).
Regarding Claim 14: Bendahan ‘651 in view of Maitrejean discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein each radiation emission zone Si in a plurality n of radiation emission zones, such that 1≤i≤n, is configured to emit the fan of penetrating radiation with an angle θi (Bendahan ‘651: Fig. 3A).
Regarding Claim 16: Bendahan ‘651 in view of Maitrejean discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the radiation emission zones are located sideways in at least one plane different from the at least one detection plane where the plurality of detectors are located (Bendahan ‘651: Figs. 3B and 3C), and
wherein the general direction of emission of each radiation emission zone is tilted with respect to the at least one detection plane, so that the emitted radiation is configured to reach the group of detectors associated with the radiation emission zone (Bendahan ‘651: Fig. 3A).
Regarding Claim 19: Bendahan ‘651 in view of Maitrejean discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the continuous array of detectors is of substantially square shape in the plane substantially perpendicular to the scan direction (Bendahan ‘651: Figs. 3A and 3C).
Regarding Claim 21: Bendahan ‘651 in view of Maitrejean discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the radiation emission zones are configured to selectively and alternately generate the penetrating radiation once and only once during a mutual scan displacement corresponding substantially to a dimension of the plurality of detectors in the scan direction, the selective generation by the radiation emission zones following a selection sequence (Bendahan ‘651: [0030]: “…a controller configured to activate and deactivate each of the source points of the first, second, third, and fourth plurality of stationary source points in a predefined sequence”).
Regarding Claim 23: Bendahan ‘651 discloses a method for inspecting cargo using an apparatus, the cargo and the apparatus having a mutual scan movement substantially along a scan direction during inspection, the method comprising:
selectively and alternately generating penetrating radiation using a plurality of radiation emission zones ([0030]: “…a controller configured to activate and deactivate each of the source points of the first, second, third, and fourth plurality of stationary source points in a predefined sequence”) configured to at least partially surround the cargo (Fig. 3A, 3C), the plurality of radiation emission zones comprising at least three radiation emission zones (Fig. 3A, 3C); and
detecting the penetrating radiation after transmission through the cargo using a plurality of detectors configured to surround the cargo (Fig. 3A, 3C), wherein at least some of the plurality of detectors are configured to form a continuous array of detectors all around the cargo in a single plane substantially perpendicular to the scan direction (Fig. 3A),
wherein each radiation emission zone in the plurality of radiation emission zones is configured to emit a fan of penetrating radiation towards the cargo in a general direction of emission different from other radiation emission zones in the plurality of radiation emission zones (Fig. 3A),
wherein each radiation emission zone is associated with a group of the plurality of detectors corresponding to the fan of penetrating radiation emitted by the radiation emission zone (Fig. 3A),
wherein two respective groups of the plurality of detectors associated with two respective adjacent radiation emission zones selectively and alternately generating penetrating radiation in the plurality of radiation emission zones are configured to share at least two detectors so that the two respective groups partly overlap each other (Fig. 3A), and
wherein the plurality of detectors are static with respect to the cargo in a plane substantially perpendicular to the scan direction (Fig. 3A),
the method further comprising outputting image data for generating one or more images of the cargo based on the penetrating radiation detected by each group of detectors (Fig. 7).
Bendahan ‘651 fails to teach:
wherein each detector comprises a plurality of stacked detector elements in a plane substantially perpendicular to the scan direction, each of the detector elements comprising a scintillator, a photosensor and an associated electronic channel, and
the method further comprising determining a flux of the penetrating radiation incident on each detector of a group, based on signal data obtained for each detector element in the group, and outputting the image data based on the determined flux.
Maitrejean teaches an array of detectors wherein each detector comprises a plurality of stacked detector elements in a plane substantially perpendicular to the scan direction (Fig. 2), each of the detector elements comprising a scintillator, a photosensor and an associated electronic channel ([0003]: “…the detectors (such as scintillator/photodiodes-based detectors…”), and
wherein the apparatus is further configured to determine a flux of the penetrating radiation incident on each detector of a respective group, based on signal data obtained for each detector element in the group (Abstract), and to output the image data based on the determined flux ([0039]: “An inspection image of the cargo 3 may be generated using the flux of inspection radiation 1 incident on rows 41 of the array 4…”).
It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art to have modified Bendahan to incorporate the teachings of Maitrejean and provide a plurality of stacked detector elements and determine a flux incident on each detector. One would be motivated to make such a modification on the basis of improving spatial resolution and generating an inspection image without the need for the detectors to be aligned towards the focal spot of the radiation source.
Claim(s) 4-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bendahan '651 in view of Maitrejean, in further view of Hubbard (US 20120327963 A1).
Regarding Claim 4: Bendahan ‘651 in view of Maitrejean discloses the apparatus of claim 3, but both fail to teach wherein the at least one electron acceleration device comprises a laser-plasma electron acceleration device comprising:
a plasma chamber; and
a gas and/or a liquid and/or a solid target located in the plasma chamber,
the gas and/or the liquid and/or the solid target being configured to cooperate with a laser beam.
Hubbard teaches a laser-plasma electron acceleration device comprising:
a plasma chamber (Fig. 2, 204); and
a gas and/or a liquid and/or a solid target located in the plasma chamber,
the gas and/or the liquid and/or the solid target being configured to cooperate with a laser beam ([0092]: “Of particular interest is the possibility of producing an electron beam from a laser-plasma accelerator and then generating broadband bremsstrahlung radiation from the interaction of that electron beam with a solid target”).
It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Bendahan ‘651 and Maitrejean to incorporate the teachings of Hubbard. One would be motivated to make such a modification on the basis of providing much stronger accelerating fields in a compact space.
Regarding Claim 5: Bendahan ‘651 in view of Maitrejean, in further view of Hubbard, discloses the apparatus of claim 4, wherein the laser beam for each laser-plasma electron acceleration device is provided by at least one laser generator (Hubbard: [0049]: The main platform includes… a seed laser source…”).
Regarding Claim 6: Bendahan ‘651 in view of Maitrejean, in further view of Hubbard, discloses the apparatus of claim 5, wherein a single laser generator is associated with a plurality of laser-plasma electron acceleration devices via at least one mirror configured to rotate (Hubbard: [0073]: “…a tracking optics system 307 may be required to provide precise location and alignment information to the beam director 306. Beam director 306 may include fast steering mirrors and may also include one or more tip/tilt devices”).
Regarding Claim 7: Bendahan ‘651 in view of Maitrejean, in further view of Hubbard, discloses the apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one laser generator is associated with a plurality of laser-plasma electron acceleration devices further via a bundle of fiber optics (Hubbard: [0068]: "main laser amplifier 305, which can include a bulk large bandwidth amplification material such as Ti:sapphire, a large bandwidth doped optical fiber, and a pumping source such as a diode or argon ion laser", [0135]: "There are other options for stretchers and compressors, including optical fibers for stretching and grisms for pulse compression").
Claim(s) 10 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bendahan '651 in view of Maitrejean, in further view of Varian (US 20140294147 A1) .
Regarding Claim 10: Bendahan ‘651 in view of Maitrejean discloses the apparatus of claim 3, but both fail to teach wherein the at least one electron acceleration device comprises a linear accelerator of electrons comprising a scan horn, wherein the scan horn comprises the Bremsstrahlung target for generating at least one radiation emission zone.
Varian teaches a cargo inspection system wherein the at least one electron acceleration device comprises a linear accelerator of electrons comprising a scan horn, wherein the scan horn comprises the Bremsstrahlung target for generating at least one radiation emission zone ([0039]: “…the accelerator 110 supplies accelerated electrons to seven (7) X-ray target stations 120a-120g… The target may comprise tungsten and/or other high atomic numbers materials that generate a desired yield of X-ray radiation when impact by accelerated electrons by the Bremsstrahlung effect.”).
It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art to have modified the combination of Bendahan ‘651 and Maitrejean to incorporate the teachings of Varian. One would have been motivated to make such a modification as a matter of obvious design choice among known electron acceleration architectures.
Regarding Claim 17: Bendahan ‘651 in view of Maitrejean discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of detectors are located in two detection planes (Maitrejean: Fig. 2), but both fail to teach:
wherein the plurality of radiation emission zones are located in a plane located between the two detection planes, and
wherein the general direction of emission of each radiation emission zone is substantially parallel to the two detection planes, so that the emitted radiation is configured to reach the group of detectors associated with each respective radiation emission zone.
Varian teaches a cargo inspection system wherein the plurality of detectors are located in two detection planes (Fig. 13, 818 and 820),
wherein the plurality of radiation emission zones are located in a plane located between the two detection planes (802), and
wherein the general direction of emission of each radiation emission zone is substantially parallel to the two detection planes, so that the emitted radiation is configured to reach the group of detectors associated with each respective radiation emission zone (Fig. 13, 802, 818, 820).
It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Bendahan ‘651 in view of Maitrejean to incorporate the teachings of Varian. One would be motivated to make such a modification on the basis of providing a better configuration for inspection image reconstruction due to the symmetry in the scan direction.
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bendahan '651 in view of Maitrejean, in further view of Bendahan ‘179 (US 20110206179 A1).
Regarding Claim 11: Bendahan ‘651 in view of Maitrejean discloses the apparatus of claim 3, but both fail to teach wherein the at least one electron acceleration device comprises a linear accelerator of electrons, wherein the linear accelerator of electrons and the at least one Bremsstrahlung target are configured to move with respect to the cargo in a plane substantially perpendicular to the scan direction.
Bendahan ‘179 teaches a cargo inspection system, wherein the at least one electron acceleration device comprises a linear accelerator of electrons, wherein the linear accelerator of electrons and the at least one Bremsstrahlung target are configured to move with respect to the cargo in a plane substantially perpendicular to the scan direction ([0032]: “…the source is a radiation source, such as a linear accelerator (linac) that is used to produce an electron beam.”; [0054]: “…a high-energy X-ray source 615 and multi-slice x-ray detectors 605 are arranged opposite to each other and move around the object 610 in a circular trajectory.”).
It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Bendahan ‘651 and Maitrejean to incorporate the teachings of Bendahan ‘179 and provide a source that is moveable with respect to the cargo. One would be motivated to make such a modification on the basis of enabling inspection of large/immobile objects and providing adjustable positioning
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/MIYA DOWNING/Examiner, Art Unit 2884
/UZMA ALAM/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2884
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