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 1-2, and 6-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP2014103974A [hereinafter Hanawa] in view of JP2005296162A [hereinafter Kunio].
Regarding Claims 1 and 9:
Hanawa teaches a particle beam control system and a particle beam control method (Fig. 1 - particle beam irradiation device 1) comprising:
two scanning electromagnets (Fig. 1 - electromagnet 30a and electromagnet 30b) configured to scan a particle beam in two-dimensional directions and be different in direction of deflecting the particle beam from each other (para. [0018]: x-axis electromagnetic 30a deflects the particle beam in x direction while y-axis electromagnetic 30b deflects the particle beam in y direction);
supply respective powers to the two scanning electromagnets (para. [0018]: excitation current is supplied to electromagnet 30a and electromagnet 30b);
a position monitor (Fig. 1- position monitor 50) configured to detect a position of the particle beam (para. [0022]: position monitor 50 identifies the scanned position of the particle beam); and
a control computer (Fig. 1 – control unit 80 and beam shape calculation unit 90) configured to control the two scanning electromagnets, wherein the control computer is configured to:
calculate a centroid position by using the position of the particle beam detected by the position monitor, the centroid position being an actual irradiation position of the particle beam (paras. [0025, 0055]: the centroid position calculation unit 91 of the beam shape calculation unit 90 calculates centroid position of the particle beam from signals supplied by position monitor 50);
calculate deviation amount between the centroid position and a spot position that is a designed irradiation position of the two scanning electromagnets (paras. [0053, 0056] teaches calculating the “errors ∆x and ∆y between the scan instruction value (reference scan position) and the centroid position.” Paras. [0026, 0031] identify the reference scanning position as “predetermined” and corresponds to the grid points (x, y) of the designed irradiation positions of electromagnets 30a and 30b);
calculate at least one correction value for correcting the centroid position to the spot position by using the deviation amount (para. [0047, 0058-0060]: calculates the corrected scan instruction value, more specifically, calculates the corrected excitation current Ix and Iy corresponding to the corrected scan instruction values. Equation (1) in paragraph [0058] calculates a corrected magnet-current setting from the centroid/reference-position error);
a memory (Fig. 1- storage 97); and
correct at least one current value, the at least one current value being a design reference when power is supplied to at least one of the two scanning electromagnets (paras [0057-0060]: “match the beam position to the reference scanning position with feedback control that performs a correction process once each time the spot position switches” by “applying the corrected excitation currents Ix and Iy calculated by equation (1) to the X electromagnet 30a and the Y electromagnet 30b, respectively, the position of the particle beam can be corrected so that the center of the particle beam coincides with the reference scanning position immediately after the completion of beam switching”).
Hanawa teaches supplying excitation currents to each of the scanning electromagnets, but it does not expressly teach such excitation currents are supplied from two power supplies. Hanawa also teaches storing planned current (I ref, i) in the irradiation-pattern file which is identifies as the current corresponding to the reference position before feedback correction (paras. [0031-0035]), however, Hanawa does not expressly teach store the calculated correction value in a memory and correct the current value using the correction values stored in the memory.
Kunio teaches a particle beam therapy system with scanning magnets 24 and 25, beam position monitor 23, and controller system 40 (Fig. 1). Specifically, Kunio teaches:
two power supplies configured to supply respective powers to the two scanning electromagnets (Fig. 2 and para. [0034]: “the scanning electromagnet power supplies 43 and 44 … controls the current supplied to the scanning electromagnets 24 and 25”),
store the at least one correction value in a memory (paras. [0041, 0043]: stores the beam position data and the scanning-magnetic current values in the storage device 45 and organizes these data as position/current conversion tables as shown in Fig. 5); and
correct at least one current value by using the at least one correction value stored in the memory (paras. [0044-0045]: “the scanning electromagnet current setting value calculation device 54 uses the conversion table stored in the memory device 55 in this manner to calculate the set current value,” and “[t]he set current values (Ix, Iy) for the scanning electromagnets 24 and 25… output to the scanning electromagnet power supply control device 45…and controls the current supplied to the scanning electromagnets 24 and 25).
Both Hanwa and Kunio teach controlling orthogonal scanning magnets based on a detected beam position to place the beam at a planned irradiation position. Kunio also teaches that separate power supplies permit independent currents and that storing measured beam-position/current information enables the controller to compensate for deviations caused by magnet hysteresis and equipment variation. Therefore, it would have been obvious for an ordinary skilled person in the art, before the effective time of filing, to configure Hawana’s X- and Y-scanning electromagnets with Kunio’s respective power supplies and storage arrangement, to allow its feedback-derived correction values to be stored and used to independently correct the planned X- and Y-current values, thereby improving the accuracy and repeatability of beam positioning.
Regarding Claim 2:
The combined references teach the particle beam control system of claim 1. Kunio further teaches wherein the memory is configured to preliminarily store the at least one correction value before start of particle beam treatment using the particle beam (paras. [0047-0048]: perform test irradiation before treatment, without patient present, under multiple irradiation conditions. The detected beam positions and corresponding magnet currents are stored in memory 55 as conversion tables. During treatment, those previously stored tables are used to determine the currents of the planned irradiation spots).
Regarding Claim 6:
The combined references teach the particle beam control system of claim 1. Hanawa further teaches the feedback parameters α and β depend on particle-beam energy (para. [0059]). Kunio further teaches the current-to-position conversion relationship changes with irradiation energy (para. [0043]), performs the pre-treatment calibration under multiple irradiation condition, including irradiation energy and stores the resulting tables in memory 55 (para. [0047]), and during treatment, the controller uses the stored table applicable to treatment conditions to determine the X/Y currents for the planned spots (para. [0048]).
As such, the combined references teach:
the at least one correction value comprises a plurality of correction values; the memory is configured to store either or both the plurality of correction values corresponding to respective ion species to be used in the particle beam and the plurality of correction values corresponding to respective beam energy values to be used in the particle beam (the combined system stores a plurality of energy-dependent calibration/correction values);
the control computer is configured to select the at least one correction value corresponding to at least one of two information items from the plurality of correction values, one of the two information items being at least one ion species among the plurality of ion species to be used for particle beam treatment, another of the two information items being at least one beam energy value among the plurality of beam energy values to be used for the particle beam treatment (the controller selects the values corresponding to the treatment beam energy).
Regarding Claim 7:
The combined references teach the particle beam control system of claim 1. Kunio further teaches wherein the at least one correction value is calculated in accordance with positioning before start of particle beam treatment when the positioning of the two scanning electromagnets is performed before the start of particle beam treatment using the particle beam (para. [0047]: before treatment and without the patient present, test beams are delivered under multiple irradiation conditions to generate conversion table between beam position data and the set current values).
Regarding Claim 8:
The combined references teach the particle beam control system of claim 1. Hanawa further teaches display 98 and using it to display information generated by the beam-control system (para. [0048]). As such, it would have been obvious to display indicating at least one of the centroid position before or after correction, the spot position, the deviation amount, and the at least one correction value, which are calculated by the controller of Hanawa, so that an operator would monitor the actual beam position, verify operation of the feedback correction, and identify an abnormal position deviation.
Claim 3-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hanawa in view of Kunio, further in view of US6380698B1 [hereinafter Dasgupta].
Regarding Claim 3:
Hanawa in view of Kunio teaches the particle beam control system of claim 1. Hanawa further teaches the two scanning electromagnets include an X-axis electromagnet configured to deflect the particle beam in an X-axis direction and a Y-axis electromagnet configured to deflect the particle beam in a Y-axis direction (Fig. 1: x-axis electromagnets 30a deflect the particle beam in the X-axis direction and y-axis electromagnets 30b deflect the particle beam in the Y-axis direction).
However, the combined references do not expressly teach the X-axis electromagnet and the Y-axis electromagnet are provided at a same position in a Z-axis direction that is a traveling direction of the particle beam.
Dasgupta teaches using a deflection yoke to deflect electron beams. Specially, Dasgupta teaches:
the two scanning electromagnets include an X-axis electromagnet (Fig. 4A- horizontal deflection coils 408) and a Y-axis electromagnet (Fig. 4A- vertical deflection coils 404) configured to deflect the particle beam in an X-axis direction and a Y-axis electromagnet configured to deflect the particle beam in a Y-axis direction (Fig. 4A, 2:54-64: the deflection yoke comprises horizontal deflection coils 408 for deflecting an electron beam horizontally and vertical deflection coils 404 for deflecting the beam vertically),
the X-axis electromagnet and the Y-axis electromagnet are provided at a same position in a Z-axis direction that is a traveling direction of the particle beam (Fig. 4A, 2:54-64: Fig. 4A is a traverse cross-section through both coils and shows that coils 404 and 408 occupy the same axial position along the beam-travelling axis and integrated in the same deflection yoke 400).
Both Hanawa and Dasgupta teach systems using orthogonal magnetic fields to scan a charged particle beam in two traverse directions. Dasgupta also teaches that integrating the horizontal and vertical coils in a common, overlapping, and funnel-shaped unit improves deflection sensitivity and reduces stored energy and power consumption. Therefore, it would have been obvious for an ordinary skilled person in the art, before the effective time of filing, to arrange Hanawa’s X- and Y-scanning electromagnets according to Dasgupta’s integrated deflection-yoke arrangement, to provide a more compact scanning assembly and improve magnetic efficiency.
Regarding Claim 4:
Hanawa in view of Kunio and Dasgupta teaches the particle beam control system of claim 3. Dasgupta further teaches wherein the X-axis electromagnet and the Y-axis electromagnet are arranged concentrically and partially overlap each other in a circumferential direction (Fig. 4A shows horizontal coils 408 are positioned radially inside the vertical coils 404, thereby providing a concentric/coaxial arrangement. 3:58-59 expressly identifies portion 416 as regions in which both horizontal and vertical coils overlap).
Regarding Claim 5:
Hanawa in view of Kunio and Dasgupta teaches the particle beam control system of claim 3. Dasgupta further teaches wherein:
the X-axis electromagnet and the Y-axis electromagnet constitute at least one electromagnet unit (Fig. 4: core 402, horizontal coils 408 and vertical coil 404 collectively constitutes the integrated deflection-yoke electromagnet unit 400);
the at least one electromagnet unit has a shape in which an inner diameter increases along the traveling direction (Fig. 5 and 2:61-64, 3:49-52: the core 402 of the unit is described as having a funnel-shaped body with a small-diameter end, a larger-diameter end, and an opening extending between them. Fig. 5 further illustrates the deflection-yoke opening increases from its small-diameter upstream end 458 toward its large-diameter downstream end 456).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JING WANG whose telephone number is (571)272-2504. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30-17:00.
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/JING WANG/Examiner, Art Unit 2881
/WYATT A STOFFA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2881
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