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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05/14/2025 was being considered by the examiner.
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, 5, 6, 8 and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Muccillo et al. (Improved densification and ionic conductivity in flash-sintered gamma-ray irradiated yttria-stabilized zirconia; Scripta Materialia, Volume 170, 2019, pp 120-123, ISSN 1359-6462, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scriptamat.2019.06.004. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359646219303367).
With regards to claim 1, Muccillo teaches the claimed "detector for gamma radiation" under that capability reading because Muccillo exposes polycrystalline 8YSZ pellets to Co-60 gamma radiation, then measures a gamma-dose-dependent electrical impedance/resistance response. The same pellet/electrode/impedance-analyzer arrangement is therefore capable of detecting prior gamma exposure by measuring the gamma-caused conductance state (Muccillo, pp. 120-123; Figs. 1-3).
Muccillo teaches "an ion-conducting polycrystalline material to absorb the gamma radiation" because 8YSZ is described as a polycrystalline solid electrolyte having predominantly ionic conductivity, with oxygen vacancies as the charge carrier, and the 8YSZ pellets are irradiated with Co-60 gamma doses of 22.9 Gy, 56.3 Gy, and 112.1 Gy (Muccillo, p. 120; Fig. 1).
Muccillo teaches that the "ion-conducting polycrystalline material is about 100 microns thick to about 100 mm thick" because the 8YSZ pellets are cylindrical pieces about 5 mm thick (Muccillo, p. 120).
Muccillo teaches "a pair of electrodes, electrically coupled to the ion-conducting polycrystalline material, to apply a voltage across the ion-conducting polycrystalline material" because the parallel pellet faces are covered with silver electrodes, spring-loaded in a sample chamber, and connected to an impedance analyzer applying a 200 mV input signal (Muccillo, p. 121; Fig. 2).
Muccillo teaches "a sensor, electrically coupled to the pair of electrodes, to measure a change in conductance of the ion-conducting polycrystalline material caused by absorption of the gamma radiation" because the impedance analyzer/controller measures bulk and intergranular impedance, and Muccillo reports that higher gamma dose lowers electrical resistance and increases total ionic conductivity (Muccillo, pp. 121-123; Figs. 2-3).
With regard to claim 5, the detector of claim 1 is disclosed for the reasons stated for claim 1. Muccillo further teaches "the voltage is about 10 mV to about 100 V" because the impedance analyzer applies a 200-mV input signal, which falls inside the claimed range (Muccillo, p. 121).
With regard to claim 6, the detector of claim 5 is disclosed for the reasons stated for claims 1 and 5. Muccillo teaches "the voltage is an alternating voltage" because the 200-mV impedance signal is applied during AC impedance spectroscopy over 5 Hz to 13 MHz (Muccillo, p. 121).
With regard to claim 8, the detector of claim 1 is disclosed for the reasons stated for claim 1. Muccillo teaches that the material "may conduct oxygen ... ions" because 8YSZ is an oxygen-ion solid electrolyte and oxygen vacancies are the mobile ionic charge carriers. Vacancy motion corresponds to oxygen-ion transport in the opposite direction (Muccillo, p. 120).
With regard to claim 14, the detector of claim 1 is disclosed for the reasons stated for claim 1. Muccillo teaches that the material "is about 500 microns thick to about 10 mm thick" because its pellets are about 5 mm thick (Muccillo, p. 120).
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) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muccillo et al. (Improved densification and ionic conductivity in flash-sintered gamma-ray irradiated yttria-stabilized zirconia; Scripta Materialia, Volume 170, 2019, Pages 120-123, ISSN 1359-6462, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scriptamat.2019.06.004. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359646219303367) in view of Caporaso et al. (US Pub. No. 2011/0101376 A1).
With regards to claim 2, Muccillo teaches the detector of claim 1 for the reasons stated above (Muccillo, pp. 120-123; Figs. 1-3).
Muccillo does not expressly teach the detector "having a dark resistance >10^14 ohm." (Muccillo, pp. 120-123).
Caporaso teaches a photoconductive body between electrodes that, "in the dark," is an insulator with a large resistance value, and Caporaso reports compensated semi-insulating SiC with dark resistivity of about 10^11-10^15 ohm-cm (Caporaso [0026], [0030]; Figs. 7-8).
It would have been obvious to select a high-resistivity detector material and ordinary electrode area/thickness geometry so that Muccillo's dark device resistance exceeds 10^14 ohm. Caporaso identifies large dark resistance as useful for blocking baseline current before excitation, and the final device resistance predictably follows from material resistivity and geometry. For example, a resistivity near 10^14-10^15 ohm-cm across a 5 mm thick, millimeter-scale pellet gives a device resistance at or above the claimed order of magnitude (Caporaso [0026], [0030]; Muccillo, p. 120).
Claim(s) 3 and 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muccillo et al. (Improved densification and ionic conductivity in flash-sintered gamma-ray irradiated yttria-stabilized zirconia; Scripta Materialia, Volume 170, 2019, Pages 120-123, ISSN 1359-6462, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scriptamat.2019.06.004. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359646219303367) in view of Mohammad et al. (US Pub. No. 2020/0284924 A1).
With regards to claim 3, Muccillo teaches the claimed invention according to claim 1, and Muccillo further teaches gamma-dose-dependent electrical resistance/conductivity changes in 8YSZ (Muccillo, pp. 121-123; Fig. 2), but does not define or report a fractional resistance sensitivity ΔR/R of about 10^5 for the detector.
Mohammad teaches radiation-responsive resistance change in a two-terminal memristor sensor because Mohammad discloses that gamma and x-ray radiation can drive chemistry needed to induce resistance change, that voltage bias drives electrochemical oxidation/reduction reactions creating charged ions that behave as dopants and increase conduction, and that the change in ionic concentration is measured as a change in device resistance through a read voltage (Mohammad [0036]-[0039]; Fig. 4).
Mohammad teaches a high resistance-ratio radiation-sensing implementation because Mohammad discloses micro-thick TiO2 memristors with high OFF/ON resistance ratio up to 10^6 and states that the advanced micro-thick TiO2 memristors may be exposed to Cs-137 gamma rays to demonstrate radiation-detection capability (Mohammad [0045]-[0046]).
Mohammad teaches active gamma-response readout because Mohammad discloses applying a non-switching ON voltage of 0.5 V to the memristor during 662 keV Cs-137 gamma exposure while monitoring current, and further discloses that the current under 0.5 V gradually increased by 100-fold within a 150 s window and that the first current jump reflected a probability of a radiation-induced conduction event (Mohammad [0069]-[0071]; Fig. 4).
Mohammad also teaches that gamma-ray sensing can be traced through changes in the OFF/ON current or resistance gap because Mohammad discloses changes in the full memristive hysteresis pattern during Cs-137 662 keV gamma irradiation and states that the ability to detect gamma rays can be traced from measurable changes in the ROFF/RON ratio, with the sensing mechanism based on reading a lower OFF resistance state or higher OFF current (Mohammad [0072]-[0074]; Figs. 18-19).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify or calibrate Muccillo’s gamma-responsive ion-conducting polycrystalline detector to operate in a large fractional resistance-response regime as taught by Mohammad because both Muccillo and Mohammad use radiation-induced ionic or defect-mediated changes to produce an electrically measured resistance/conductance response (Muccillo, pp. 120-123; Fig. 2; Mohammad [0036]-[0039], [0045]-[0046], [0069]-[0074]).
The selection of a large ΔR/R value around 10^5 would have been an obvious calibration or design target for improving signal-to-noise and readout contrast, because Mohammad teaches multi-order-of-magnitude memristive resistance-ratio capability up to 10^6 and also teaches actual gamma-responsive current/resistance-gap readout (Mohammad [0045]-[0046], [0071]-[0074]).
With regards to claim 7, Muccillo teaches the detector of claim 5 for the reasons stated for claims 1 and 5 (Muccillo, pp. 120-123).
Muccillo uses an alternating impedance voltage and does not expressly teach that "the voltage is a constant voltage." (Muccillo, p. 121).
Mohammad teaches continuously applying a non-switching constant 0.5 V read voltage during Cs-137 gamma exposure and monitoring the resulting current change. Mohammad also teaches periodically applying the same 0.5 V baseline voltage to read stored exposure after deployment (Mohammad [0039], [0043]-[0045], [0070]-[0071]; Fig. 4).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time that the invention was made to use Mohammad's constant-voltage readout in Muccillo's two-terminal resistance detector because constant bias is a known alternative to AC impedance when direct current monitoring is desired instead of a full impedance spectrum. The substitution leaves the sensing material and electrodes unchanged and predictably returns current proportional to conductance state (Mohammad [0039], [0043]-[0045], [0070]-[0071]; Muccillo, pp. 121-123).
Accordingly, the combined teachings render obvious "wherein the voltage is a constant voltage."
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muccillo et al. (Improved densification and ionic conductivity in flash-sintered gamma-ray irradiated yttria-stabilized zirconia; Scripta Materialia, Volume 170, 2019, Pages 120-123, ISSN 1359-6462, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scriptamat.2019.06.004. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359646219303367) in view of Hobbs et al., "Radiation Effects in Ceramics," Journal of Nuclear Materials 216, 291-321 (1994).
With regards to claim 4, Muccillo teaches the detector of claim 1 for the reasons stated above (Muccillo, pp. 120-123; Figs. 1-3).
Muccillo measures impedance at 400 C but does not expressly teach that the detector "is not temperature sensitive below 400 C." (Muccillo, pp. 121-123).
Hobbs teaches radiation-induced conductivity in ceramic insulators. Hobbs Fig. 10 and the accompanying text state that RIC is only weakly dependent on temperature at low irradiation temperatures and that studies observed only slight increase or decrease in RIC from 298 K to 673 K, approximately 25 C to 400 C (Hobbs, p. 304; Fig. 10).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time that the invention was made to operate, select, or calibrate Muccillo's ceramic resistance-read detector in a known weak-temperature-dependence regime because the ordinary detector utility is to separate radiation-caused conductance change from thermal drift. Selecting such a measurement/calibration regime is routine optimization of a result-effective detector condition (Hobbs, p. 304; Fig. 10; Muccillo, pp. 120-123).
Accordingly, under the broad reading of claim 4, the combined teachings render obvious a detector that is "not temperature sensitive below 400 C."
Claim(s) 9 – 12 and 15 – 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muccillo et al. (Improved densification and ionic conductivity in flash-sintered gamma-ray irradiated yttria-stabilized zirconia; Scripta Materialia, Volume 170, 2019, pp 120-123, ISSN 1359-6462, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scriptamat.2019.06.004. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359646219303367) in view of Defferriere et al., "Photo-enhanced ionic conductivity across grain boundaries in polycrystalline ceramics," Nature Materials (published Jan. 13, 2022).
With regards to claim 9, Muccillo teaches the detector of claim 1 for the reasons stated above (Muccillo, pp. 120-123; Figs. 1-3).
Muccillo uses 8YSZ and does not teach that "the ion-conducting polycrystalline material comprises CeO2 and a Gd dopant." (Muccillo, p. 120).
Defferriere teaches polycrystalline Gd-doped CeO2 as a highly conducting oxygen-ion solid electrolyte and specifically prepares and measures 3 mol% Gd-doped ceria, referred to as 3GDC (Defferriere, p. 1 and Methods; Figs. 1-2).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time that the invention was made to substitute Defferriere's Gd-doped CeO2 for Muccillo's YSZ because both are established polycrystalline oxygen-vacancy solid electrolytes and both are read electrically through ionic conductance. Defferriere further shows irradiation-modulated GDC grain-boundary conductance, providing the predictable utility of stronger grain-boundary ionic response (Defferriere, pp. 1-6; Figs. 1-5; Muccillo, pp. 120-123).
With regard to claim 10, Muccillo teaches the claimed invention according to claim 9, but fails to expressly teach "the Gd dopant may range from 0.5 atm% to 40 atm%". For this prior-art rejection, "atm%" is treated as atom-percent or mol-percent dopant concentration because that is the closest reasonable reading of the Gd-dopant limitation.
Defferriere uses 3 mol% Gd and explains that conventional GDC commonly uses 10-20 mol% Gd to maximize oxygen-ion conductivity. Those values fall inside the claimed 0.5-40% interval under the atom-percent or mol-percent dopant-concentration construction (Defferriere, p. 1 and Methods).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time that the invention was made to modified Muccillo to select a Gd concentration inside the claimed range because Defferriere identifies dopant level as a known variable controlling oxygen-ion conductivity and grain-boundary resistance. Selecting a disclosed value or conventional range is routine optimization of a result-effective material variable (Defferriere, p. 1; Fig. 1).
With regard to claim 11, Muccillo modified teaches the claimed invention according to claim 10, but fails to expressly teach "wherein the Gd dopant is 3 atm%.".
Defferriere expressly prepares and measures 3 mol% Gd-doped CeO2 (Defferriere, p. 1 and Methods; Figs. 1-2). Once the Defferriere GDC substitution is made for claim 9, using Defferriere's express 3 mol% value is not a further invention. It is the disclosed working example and lies within the claim-10 range (Defferriere, p. 1 and Methods). Notice that MPEP 2131.03: Prior Art which teaches a range within, overlapping or touching the claimed range anticipates if the prior art range discloses the claimed range with “sufficient specificity”.
With regards to claim 12, Muccillo teaches the claimed detector according to claim 1 and further teaches separating the intergranular grain-boundary impedance contribution from the intragranular bulk contribution (Muccillo, pp. 121-123; Fig. 2).
Muccillo does not expressly teach "positively charged grain boundaries" or expressly quantify grain-boundary spacing as about 10 nm to about 1 micron.
Defferriere teaches a positively charged grain-boundary core in polycrystalline Gd-doped ceria and explains that the positive core depletes positively charged oxygen vacancies in adjacent space-charge regions. Muccillo separately supplies the claimed grain-boundary spacing because Fig. 3 uses 500 nm scale bars and shows submicrometer 8YSZ grains, so adjacent grain boundaries are spaced within the claimed 10 nm-1 um intervals (Defferriere, pp. 1-5; Figs. 1 and 5; Muccillo, pp. 122-123; Fig. 3).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time that the invention was made to modified Muccillo to use Defferriere's positively charged GDC grain-boundary chemistry with Muccillo's submicrometer polycrystalline detector microstructure because more grain-boundary area increases the fraction of the conduction path controlled by irradiation-responsive space-charge barriers. That is a predictable sensitivity benefit, not a new operating principle (Defferriere, pp. 1-5; Figs. 1 and 5; Muccillo, pp. 121-123; Fig. 3).
Accordingly, the combined teachings render obvious an ion-conducting polycrystalline material comprising positively charged grain boundaries spaced about 10 nm to about 1 um apart.
With regards to claim 15, Muccillo teaches "irradiating an ion-conducting polycrystalline material with the radiation" because polycrystalline 8YSZ, a predominantly ionic oxygen-vacancy conductor, is exposed to Co-60 gamma radiation. (Muccillo, p. 120; Fig. 1).
Muccillo teaches "applying a voltage across a pair of electrodes, positioned to sandwich the ion-conducting polycrystalline material and electrically coupled to the ion-conducting polycrystalline material" because the parallel faces of the pellet are covered with silver electrodes and a 200 mV impedance signal is applied through those electrodes (Muccillo, p. 121; Fig. 2).
Muccillo teaches "sensing a change in conductance" because impedance spectroscopy separates bulk and intergranular responses and shows decreasing resistance with increasing gamma dose (Muccillo, pp. 121-123; Figs. 2-3).
Muccillo attributes the conductance change to increased oxygen-vacancy concentration but does not expressly state that the radiation causes ions to "migrate across grain boundaries" and that the sensed conductance change is "caused by migration of the ions across the grain boundaries." (Muccillo, pp. 120-123).
Defferriere teaches the missing grain-boundary ion-migration language. In polycrystalline GDC, illumination lowers the grain-boundary potential barrier, oxygen vacancies and oxygen ions rearrange over the grain-boundary space-charge region, and the measured resistance decrease is dominated by ionic, not electronic, conduction. Defferriere estimates a 1-7 nm space-charge width and states that oxygen-ion migration kinetics match the measured response (Defferriere, pp. 1-6; Figs. 1, 4, and 5).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time that the invention was made to modified Muccillo to apply Defferriere's grain-boundary ion-migration mechanism to Muccillo's gamma-responsive YSZ method because both references involve polycrystalline oxygen-vacancy conductors, both use electrical impedance/conductance readout, and both address irradiation/illumination-caused conductance changes. The combination supplies a predictable microscopic cause for the conductance change measured by Muccillo (Muccillo, pp. 120-123; Defferriere, pp. 1-6; Figs. 1-5).
With regard to claim 16, refer to claim 5.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muccillo et al. (Improved densification and ionic conductivity in flash-sintered gamma-ray irradiated yttria-stabilized zirconia; Scripta Materialia, Volume 170, 2019, Pages 120-123, ISSN 1359-6462, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scriptamat.2019.06.004. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359646219303367) in view of Polfus. J.M. Polfus, B. Yildiz, and H.L. Tuller ("Origin of Fast Oxide Ion Diffusion along Grain Boundaries in Sr-doped LaMnO3," Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 20, 19142-19150 (2018)).
With regards to claim 13, Muccillo teaches the detector of claim 1 and shows submicrometer polycrystalline 8YSZ grains. The higher-magnification panels in Fig. 3 use a 500 nm scale bar, so the grain-boundary spacing is within the claimed 10 nm-1 um range (Muccillo, pp. 122-123; Fig. 3).
Muccillo does not expressly teach "negatively charged grain boundaries." (Muccillo, pp. 120-123).
Polfus teaches ion-conducting oxide ceramics having negatively charged grain-boundary cores. Polfus explains that donor-doped BaTiO3 ceramics can exhibit negative core charge associated with cation-vacancy segregation at grain boundaries, causing accumulation of oxygen vacancies in space-charge regions and enabling fast grain-boundary diffusion (Polfus, author manuscript pp. 11-12).
It would have been obvious to select a known dopant/defect chemistry that produces a negative grain-boundary core in Muccillo's submicrometer ion-conducting ceramic because Polfus identifies the sign of grain-boundary core charge as a controllable material variable that governs oxygen-vacancy accumulation and diffusion. This is a predictable design choice for tuning the grain-boundary barrier while retaining the same impedance readout (Polfus, author manuscript pp. 11-12; Muccillo, pp. 121-123; Fig. 3).
Claim(s) 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muccillo et al. (Improved densification and ionic conductivity in flash-sintered gamma-ray irradiated yttria-stabilized zirconia; Scripta Materialia, Volume 170, 2019, Pages 120-123, ISSN 1359-6462, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scriptamat.2019.06.004. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359646219303367) in view of Defferriere and in further view of Kabir et al., ("Effect of Oxygen Defects Blocking Barriers on Gadolinium Doped Ceria (GDC) Electro-Chemo-Mechanical Properties," Acta Materialia 174, 53-60 (2019)).
With regards to claim 17, Muccillo and Defferriere render obvious the method of claim 15, and further Muccillo teaches measuring impedance from 5 Hz to 13 MHz and separates high-frequency bulk response from low-frequency intergranular response (Muccillo, pp. 121-122; Fig. 2).
Muccillo does not extend the lower frequency endpoint to "about 0.01 Hz." (Muccillo, p. 121).
Kabir teaches electrochemical impedance spectroscopy of Gd-doped ceria using a frequency range of 0.01 Hz to 1 MHz and a 100-mV alternating signal. Kabir also discusses blocking barriers, bulk/grain-boundary behavior, and oxygen-vacancy-related electromechanical properties in GDC (Kabir, pp. 53-60; Methods).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify Muccillo in order to extend Muccillo's 5 Hz-13 MHz impedance sweep down to Kabir's 0.01 Hz endpoint because lower-frequency impedance is a routine way to resolve slower grain-boundary, electrode, or defect-relaxation processes. Muccillo already exceeds the claimed 1 MHz upper endpoint and already derives bulk conductivity from the high-frequency arc, so the endpoint change is ordinary impedance-range selection (Muccillo, pp. 121-122; Kabir, pp. 53-60).
Claim(s) 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muccillo et al. (Improved densification and ionic conductivity in flash-sintered gamma-ray irradiated yttria-stabilized zirconia; Scripta Materialia, Volume 170, 2019, Pages 120-123, ISSN 1359-6462, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scriptamat.2019.06.004. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359646219303367) in view of Defferriere and in further view of Jorion et al. (US Patent 5,884,234).
With regards to claim 18, Muccillo teaches the method of claim 15 and Defferriere also teaches a constant-voltage implementation because IMPS is performed under a 6 V DC bias and measures photocurrent admittance directly related to the irradiation-caused resistance decrease (Defferriere, p. 3; Fig. 4).
Muccillo and Defferriere do not expressly teach "determining a type of the radiation in response to the change in current." (Muccillo, pp. 120-123; Defferriere, pp. 1-6).
Jorion teaches pulse-shape discrimination in a nuclear spectroscopy system and states that neutron and gamma-ray signals differ from each other in the shape of the detector pulse. Jorion further teaches distinguishing signals by looking at a ratio of maximum pulse voltage to a later voltage and by comparing acquired pulse shape to a predetermined shape (Jorion col. 2, lines 20-44; col. 4, lines 41-67; Figs. 10-11).
It would have been obvious to process the constant-bias current waveform from the Muccillo/Defferriere ionic detector using Jorion's pulse-shape discrimination because Jorion's processing is downstream electronics applied to an existing detector output. The utility is to obtain radiation classification in addition to exposure detection without changing the sensing material (Jorion col. 2, lines 20-44; Defferriere, p. 3; Fig. 4).
Claim(s) 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muccillo et al. (Improved densification and ionic conductivity in flash-sintered gamma-ray irradiated yttria-stabilized zirconia; Scripta Materialia, Volume 170, 2019, Pages 120-123, ISSN 1359-6462, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scriptamat.2019.06.004. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359646219303367) in view of Defferriere and in further view of Jorion et al. (US Patent 5,884,234) and Jorion et al. (US Patent 9,703,004), hereinbelow Jorion 2.
With regards to claim 19, Muccillo modified teaches the claimed invention according to claim 18, but fails to expressly teach "determining an energy spectrum of the radiation based on the change in current.".
Jorion 2 teaches that a gamma-ray spectroscopy system determines the energy associated with absorption of incident gamma rays and registers pulse events in histograms organized by energy levels, namely MCA spectra. Jorion 2 further teaches that detector pulse signals are indicative of deposited energy. (Jorion 2 col. 1, lines 21-52; col. 3, lines 18-43; Fig. 1.)
It would have been obvious to bin amplitudes or integrals of the current changes from the combined ionic detector into energy channels because Jorion 2 identifies pulse height or associated signal magnitude as the conventional electrical proxy for deposited radiation energy. That is established pulse-height-analyzer processing applied to the claim-18 current signal (Jorion 2 col. 1, lines 21-52; col. 3, lines 18-43).
Claim(s) 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muccillo et al. (Improved densification and ionic conductivity in flash-sintered gamma-ray irradiated yttria-stabilized zirconia; Scripta Materialia, Volume 170, 2019, Pages 120-123, ISSN 1359-6462, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scriptamat.2019.06.004. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359646219303367) in view of Defferriere and in further view of Mohammed.
With regards to claim 20, Muccillo modified discloses the claimed invention according to claim 15, but fails to expressly disclose "measuring a change in a concentration of ionic charge in the pair of electrodes" and "determining a total dose of radiation received ... over a period of time" from that concentration change.
Mohammad teaches that oxygen-vacancy anions migrate toward the positive electrode, increasing vacancy-dopant concentration at the cathode interface, and that the change in anion concentration is measured as a change in resistance monitored in real time (Mohammad [0037]-[0039]; Figs. 3-4).
Mohammad further teaches time-dependent accumulated-dose effects, a radiation measurement corresponding to the level of gamma exposure over an exposure period, and use as an electronic alternative to an integrating thermoluminescent dosimeter (Mohammad [0041]-[0045], [0070]-[0077]; Figs. 18-19).
It would have been obvious to integrate or time-correlate Mohammad's ionic-concentration-derived resistance/current signal in the Muccillo/Defferriere detector because Mohammad expressly links the evolving ionic/resistive state to accumulated gamma exposure and dosimeter utility. The step is conventional use of the same measured state variable over time and does not change the detector material (Mohammad [0039], [0041]-[0045], [0070]-[0077]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DJURA MALEVIC whose telephone number is 571.272.5975. The examiner can normally be reached M-F (9-5).
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Uzma Alam can be reached at 571.272.3995. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/DJURA MALEVIC/Examiner, Art Unit 2884
/UZMA ALAM/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2884
Prosecution Insights