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) 1-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kaneko et al. (US 2012/0306497 A1), hereinafter referred to as Kaneko.
With reference to claim 1, Kaneko teaches A magnetic resonance (MR) receive coil (18), comprising: a conducting loop that is resonant at a Larmor frequency of a design-basis B₀ magnetic field of at least 3 Tesla (Fig. 11, 320, ¶0120); and a conducting trace configured to detune the conducting loop from the Larmor frequency in response to a DC current flowing through the conducting trace, the conducting trace further including a receive I B₁ I -field uniformity-enhancing inductor (Fig. 11, 141) positioned at an intermediate point along the conducting trace (Fig. 11, Trace connecting 141, 143 and 144) . With reference to claim 2, Kaneko further teaches the receive |B1| field uniformity-enhancing inductor is tuned to optimize receive I B₁ I -field uniformity of the MR receive coil when the MR receive coil is placed in the design-basis B₀ magnetic field with a leg of the conducting trace containing the receive | B₁ I -field uniformity- enhancing inductor oriented parallel with the design-basis B₀ magnetic field (Fig. 11, Fig. 2 ¶0069).
With reference to claim 3, Kaneko further teaches the receive I B₁ I -field uniformity-enhancing inductor is positioned at a midpoint of the conducting loop (Fig. 11). With reference to claim 4, Kaneko further teaches the conducting trace runs parallel with the conducting loop (20) along a portion of the conducting loop (Fig. 11). With reference to claim 5, Kaneko further teaches the conducting trace runs parallel with the conducting loop along one- half of the conducting loop (Fig. 11). With reference to claim 6, Kaneko further teaches conducting trace includes at least two additional inductors in addition to the receive I B₁ I -field uniformity-enhancing inductor (conductor connecting 141 and 321 and conductor connecting 143 and 321 given the broadest reasonable interpretations are “two additional inductors”).
With reference to claim 7, Kaneko further teaches the at least two additional inductors include: two coupling inductors connecting opposite ends of the conducting trace to the conducting loop (conductor connecting 141 and 321 and conductor connecting 143 and 321). With reference to claim 8, Kaneko further teaches the conducting loop comprises at least one capacitor (Fig. 11, 140 or 142). With reference to claim 9, Kaneko further teaches a capacitor of the conducting loop located with the receive |B1|- field uniformity-enhancing inductor (Fig. 11, 140).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11-20 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art does not disclose or suggest the claimed "adjusting one or more components of the MR receive coil including at least the receive |B₁|-field uniformity-enhancing inductor to optimize receive |B₁|-field uniformity of the MR receive coil placed in the design-basis B0 magnetic field and coupled with the dielectric body" in combination with the remaining claim elements as set forth in claims 11-20.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Rehner et al. (US 11,874,350 B2) teaches a local coil with detuning function.
Vartiovaara (US 8,013,609 B2) teaches a detuning circuit and detuning method for an MRI system.
Viswanathan (US 2011/0018539 A1) teaches hybrid imaging coils for MRI.
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/GREGORY H CURRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852
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