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
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.
Claims 1-2 and 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Katsuumi et al (U.S.Pat. 11,050,210) (“Katsuumi”) in view of Young et al (U.S.Pat. 10,693,265 B2 (“Young”).
With respect to claims 1-2 and 17-18, Katsuumi discloses a chamber device and a corresponding gas laser device and an electronic device manufacturing method comprising: a pair of discharge electrodes (11a, 11b) arranged apart from a facing one another, with their longitudinal directions extending along a predetermined direction, and a laser chamber (10) enclosing the discharge electrodes and laser gas. Katsuumi also discloses a plurality of peaking capacitors (C3) disposed side by side along the longitudinal direction of the discharge electrodes. Furthermore, Katsuumi discloses a conductive connection plate (20b) electrically connected to one electrode of each peaking capacitor (C3) and electrically connected through conducting portions (20a) to the discharge electrode (11a). Connection plate (20b) is also electrically connected to an output terminal of pulse power module (13) supplying the pulse high voltage. Thus, plate (20b) and its associated connection constitute at least one power-supply terminal electrically connecting one discharge electrode and one terminal of each capacitor to a high-voltage power source. Katsuumi discloses conductive connection plates (10f and 10g) extending substantially parallel to connection plate (20b) and along the plurality of capacitors (C3). Each of plates (10f and 10g) is electrically connected to the other electrode of a respective peaking capacitor C3. The plates are electrically connected through the chamber, wiring portions 10d and 10e, and return plate 10c to discharge electrode 11b and to a reference potential, such as ground (see figures 1-2). Accordingly, Katsuumi discloses the claimed conductive-plate shaped connection member extending in the predetermined direction along the plurality of capacitors, connected to the other terminals of the capacitors, and electrically connected at a laterally displaced portion to ground. Thus, Katsuumi discloses substantially all limitations of the instant claims. Katsuumi, however, does not expressly disclose that the grounded connection plate includes an inductance-compensation structure configured to make substantially uniform an inductance distribution caused by differences in distance between the power-supply terminal and the terminals of the respective capacitors.
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Young discloses (figure 8) a conductive plate or terminal connector serving as a common electrical connection for multiple terminals positioned at different locations. Young recognizes that such arrangements can result in electrical imbalance because the individual terminals do not necessary experience the same current flow and power loss. Young (col.7-col.8) teaches forming one or more gaps, opening, windows, slots or reduced-material regions in a conductive plate to shape the conductive pathways and provide substantially balanced electrical paths among distributed connection locations. More specifically, Young discloses a central opening or window (802) and a slot (804) extending from the window to an edge of a conductive phase plate. Young teaches arranging the window and slot to optimize mutual resistance and inductance and to provide substantially balanced conductive paths such that substantially equal currents flow through corresponding distributed terminals (see col.10, lines 1-21). Young also explains that: current follow the lowest-impedance path; the impedance includes both resistance and inductive; resistance and inductance values are calculated for candidate plate configuration and gap geometry is varied to obtain substantially balanced electrical conditions (see figures 5-6 and associated descriptions).
In view of such teachings, it would have been obvious to a skilled artisan before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify one or both of Katsuumi’s grounded conductive connection plates 10f and 10g to include openings, windows, slots, gaps or other plate-geometry modifications of the type taught by Young. The reasons for doing so would have been to compensate for unequal electrical-path characteristics produced by the differing distances between a common power connection and the spatially distributed capacitors thereby optimizing the inductive contribution of the respective conductive paths, balancing current supplied through the several parallel capacitor branches and optimizing resistance and inductance. As modified, the connection plate of Katsuumi would include an inductance compensation structure that compensates for path-dependent inductance associated with differing distances from the power supply connection and makes the effective inductive characteristics of the capacitor paths substantially more uniform and improving the quality of the gas laser device.
As to claim 2, Katsuumi as modified by Young, does not expressly state that the compensation structure produces a greater inductance in a region closer to the power-supply terminal than in a region farther from the power-supply terminal. In view of Young’s teachings, determining the relative amount of compensation at different positions would have involved routine electrical design and optimization of a result-effective variable, namely the local inductance produced by the geometry of the conductive plate. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to configure the compensation structure of Katsuumi as modified by Young such that the inductive in a region closer to the power supply terminal is larger than the inductive in a region farther form the power-supply terminal, as recited in the claim since this would have been a predictable implementation of Young’s expressly stated objective of optimizing inductance and balancing the electric characteristics of distributed conductive paths.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-16 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claims 3-9 have been found allowable since the prior art does not teach or suggest implementing the inductance-compensation structure by providing one or more openings in the conductive connection member having spatially varying porosity, opening density, opening size, or opening distribution as a function of the distance from the power-supply terminal, as specified recited. In particular, the cited references do not disclose or suggest configuring the openings such that the porosity, density or size of the openings is greater in regions closer to the power-supply terminal than in regions farther form the power-supply terminal, or otherwise these opening characteristics in the specific positional manner recited by the claims.
Claims 10-14 have been found allowable since the prior art likewise fails to teach or suggest implementing the inductance-compensation structure by providing notches or conductive plate portions having positional variations in notch density, notch area, or minimum conductive width as a function of the distance from the power-supply terminal. The cited references disclose opening or slots for generally balancing electrical characteristics but do not disclose the claimed location dependent geometry relationship as recited in the claims.
Claims 15-16 have been found allowable since the prior art fails to teach or suggest compensating for inductance differences by varying the electrical characteristics or spatial arrangement of the capacitors themselves, including varying capacitor capacitance or capacitor density according to the distance from the power-supply terminal. The cited references disclose plural capacitors connected in parallel but do not disclose or suggest the claimed positional variation in capacitance or capacitor density.
Prior Art Made of Record
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Yamanouchi et al (US 2024/0405501 A1); Jiang et al (U.S.Pat. 12,244,117 B2) disclose gas laser devices and have been cited for technical background.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HUNG HENRY NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2124. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:00AM-4:30PM.
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HUNG HENRY NGUYEN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2882
Hvn
8/4/26
/HUNG V NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2882
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