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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
This Office Action is in response to the application filed on 02/27/25. Examiner acknowledged that claims 1-32 are pending.
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 02/27/25, 05/27/25, 03/18/26 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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(s) 1-16, 29, 31-32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Radomski (US 2017/0062187).
Regarding Claim 1, Radomski teaches a plasma state monitoring device (Fig. 1: 16a, 20a, 16b, 20b) for connecting to an impedance matching circuit (Fig. 1: 18a, 18b) for a plasma generation system (Fig. 1: 10), wherein the plasma state monitoring device is configured to: a) capture a first group of time-varying measured values ([0035] “Sensors 16a, 16b may include voltage, current, and/or directional coupler sensors”), wherein the time-varying measured values in the first group are dependent on an impedance (supplied, reflected power, impedance fluctuations can be detected at one of the connections (Fig. 1); [0038]) which is detectable on one of terminals of the impedance matching circuit; b) capture a second group of time-varying measured values ([0035] “Sensors 16a, 16b may include voltage, current, and/or directional coupler sensors”) of at least one measured variable, wherein the at least one measured variable comprises at least one of: i) a voltage ([0035] “Sensors 16a, 16b may include voltage, current, and/or directional coupler sensors”); ii) a current ([0035] “Sensors 16a, 16b may include voltage, current, and/or directional coupler sensors”); or iii) a phase relationship between the voltage and the current ([0036] “Feedback control signals 28a, 28b may be drive signals and have a DC offset or rail voltage, voltage or current magnitude, a frequency, and a phase”; NOTE: sensors 16a, 16b would pick up the phase values as well from feedback signals 28a, 28b); wherein the time-varying measured values of the at least one measured variable in the second group; c) represent the first group of time-varying measured values in a first diagram (Figs. 5-7), wherein the first diagram has no time axis ([0053-0056]), and represent the second group of time-varying measured values in a second diagram (Fig. 4), wherein the second diagram comprises two axes ([0051]), one of which is a time axis, wherein the first group of time-varying measured values and the second group of time-varying measured values have been captured within an at least partially identical time period ([0051-0053]), thereby enabling a state monitoring of the plasma generation system.
Radomski does not explicitly teach in Fig. 1 time-varying measured values are recorded in a temporally sequential manner. However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Radomski in order to understand that (Fig. 2: 76 and 78) and (Fig. 1: 38) would include temporal storage of values in sequential manner since the values are constantly being sensed and update/stored by the controller as indicated by (Fig. 4) along a timeline.
Regarding Claim 2, Radomski teaches the plasma state monitoring device as claimed in claim 1, comprising: an output device (Fig. 1: 32); wherein the plasma state monitoring device is configured for simultaneous representation of the first diagram and the second diagram on the output device (Figs. 4-7).
Regarding Claim 3, Radomski teaches the plasma state monitoring device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plasma state monitoring device is configured to capture the first group of time-varying measured values and the second group of time-varying measured values of the at least one measured variable at a measuring point (Fig.1: via signals 22a, 22b) within the plasma generation system.
Regarding Claim 4, Radomski teaches the plasma state monitoring device as claimed in claim 3, wherein: the measuring point is locatable in a region of an input terminal (Fig. 1: 16a, 16b is located at the input of the matching circuits) of the impedance matching circuit; or the measuring point is locatable in a region of an output terminal of the impedance matching circuit.
Regarding Claim 5, Radomski teaches the plasma state monitoring device as claimed in claim 1, comprising: a measuring unit (Fig. 1: 16a, 16b) configured to measure the second group of time-varying measured values of multiple measured variables; wherein the plasma state monitoring device is configured, from the measured time-varying measured values of the at least one measured variable of the second group, to calculate the time-varying measured values of the first group (Fig. 2: 76 with loop back to 58).
Regarding Claim 6, Radomski teaches the plasma state monitoring device as claimed in claim 5, wherein: the measuring unit is configured to measure the second group of time-varying measured values of a voltage and a current as the measured variables; and the plasma state monitoring device is configured to calculate the phase relationship from the voltage and the current ([0035] “Sensors 16a, 16b may include voltage, current, and/or directional coupler sensors”).
Regarding Claim 7, Radomski teaches the plasma state monitoring device as claimed in claim 5, wherein: the measuring unit comprises a directional coupler; or the measuring unit comprises a current sensor and a voltage sensor ([0035] “Sensors 16a, 16b may include voltage, current, and/or directional coupler sensors”).
Regarding Claim 8, Radomski teaches the plasma state monitoring device as claimed in claim 5, wherein: the measuring unit comprises a digitization device ([0035] “Sensors 16a, 16b may be analog and/or digital sensors”) configured to digitize the second group of time-varying measured values, wherein the digitization device has a sampling rate in excess of 50 kHz (NOTE: it is well known that industrial sensors sampling at 50Hz is sufficient to capture trend without excessive data volume).
Regarding Claim 9, Radomski teaches the plasma state monitoring device as claimed in claim 8, comprising: a memory device (Fig. 1: controller 20 includes memory; [0061] “memory circuit”), wherein the digitization device is configured to save digitized time-varying measured values of the second group in the memory device (fig. 1: 38 updates the value).
Regarding Claim 10, Radomski teaches the plasma state monitoring device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plasma state monitoring device is configured to: receive a trigger signal (Fig. 2: 54), and in response to presence of the trigger signal, capture (Fig. 2: 76 update the value) the first group of time-varying measured values and the second group of time-varying measured values of the at least one measured variable (Fig. 2: time-varying values are captured again and again within the loop).
Regarding Claim 11, Radomski teaches the plasma state monitoring device as claimed in claim 10, wherein the plasma state monitoring device is configured, upon each reception of the trigger signal, to capture a specific number of measured values in the first and the second group, and to represent the first group of time-varying measured values in the first diagram (Figs. 5-7) and the second group of time-varying measured values in the second diagram (Fig. 4).
Regarding Claim 12, Radomski teaches the plasma state monitoring device as claimed in claim 1, wherein: a number of time-varying measured values in the first group corresponds to a number of time-varying measured values of the respective measured variable in the second group (Fig. 2: trigger event 54 would provide the number of measured values for both group), or deviates therefrom by a maximum of 10%.
Regarding Claim 13, Radomski teaches the plasma state monitoring device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plasma state monitoring device is configured to plot at least a number or all of the time-varying measured values in the first group in the first diagram by colors, wherein the colors indicate time points at which the time-varying measured values in the first group have been captured (Figs 4-7 can be plots based on what color is desired by the user; therefore, this is a user desired component that is obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art).
Regarding Claim 14, Radomski teaches the plasma state monitoring device as claimed in claim 13,wherein the colors are selected such that: a) the time-varying measured values in the first group which have been captured previously are represented in a darker shade, and the time-varying measured values in the first group which have been captured subsequently are represented in a lighter shade; or b) the time-varying measured values in the first group which have been captured previously are represented in a lighter shade, and the time-varying measured values in the first group which have been captured subsequently are represented in a darker shade (Figs 4-7 can be plots based on what color is desired by the user; therefore, this is a user desired component that is obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art).
Regarding Claim 15, Radomski teaches the plasma state monitoring device as claimed in claim 1, wherein: a first axis of the second diagram is a measured value axis, and a second axis of the second diagram is the time axis (Fig. 4: x-time, y-current).
Regarding Claim 16, Radomski teaches the plasma state monitoring device as claimed in claim 1, comprising: an input unit configured to capture a user input ([0066] “the computer programs may encompass a basic input/output system (BIOS) that interacts with…user applications”).
Regarding Claim 29, Radomski teaches the plasma state monitoring device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plasma state monitoring device is configured to progressively capture (Fig. 2: 76 update value and continue to loop) the time-varying measured values of the first group and the time-varying measured values of the second group, and to execute the representation thereof in the first diagram and the second diagram.
Regarding Claim 31, Radomski teaches a plasma generation system comprising: the plasma state monitoring device as claimed in claim 1; an impedance matching circuit (Fig. 1: 18); a HF generator (Fig. 1: 14); and at least one load (Fig. 1: 32); wherein the HF generator is connected to an HF input of the impedance matching circuit; wherein an HF output of the impedance matching circuit is connected to the at least one load; wherein the first group of time-varying measured values is captured at the HF input of the impedance matching circuit; and wherein the second group of time-varying measured values of the at least one measured variable ([0035] “Sensors 16a, 16b may include voltage, current, and/or directional coupler sensors”) is captured at the HF input of the impedance matching circuit.
Regarding Claim 32, Radomski teaches a method for monitoring a plasma generation system by using a plasma state monitoring device (Fig. 1: 16a, 20a, 16b, 20b) for connecting to an impedance matching circuit (Fig. 1: 18a, 18b), wherein the plasma state monitoring device is configured to execute the following process steps: a) capturing a first group of time-varying measured values([0035] “Sensors 16a, 16b may include voltage, current, and/or directional coupler sensors”), wherein the time-varying measured values in the first group are dependent upon an impedance which is detectable on one of terminals of the impedance matching circuit; b) capturing a second group of time-varying measured values ([0035] “Sensors 16a, 16b may include voltage, current, and/or directional coupler sensors”) of at least one measured variable, wherein the at least one measured variable comprises one of: i) voltage ([0035] “Sensors 16a, 16b may include voltage, current, and/or directional coupler sensors”); ii) current ([0035] “Sensors 16a, 16b may include voltage, current, and/or directional coupler sensors”); or iii) the phase relationship between the voltage and the current ([0036] “Feedback control signals 28a, 28b may be drive signals and have a DC offset or rail voltage, voltage or current magnitude, a frequency, and a phase”; NOTE: sensors 16a, 16b would pick up the phase values as well from feedback signals 28a, 28b); wherein the time-varying measured values of the respective measured variable are captured c) representing the first group in a first diagram (Figs. 5-7), wherein the first diagram is a diagram with no time axis ([0053-0056]), and representing the second group in a second diagram (Fig. 4), wherein the second diagram comprises two axes ([0051]), one of which is a time axis, wherein the time-varying measured values in the first group and the time-varying measured values of the respective measured variable in the second group have been captured within an at least partially identical time period ([0051-0053]), thereby enabling a state monitoring of the plasma generation system.
Radomski does not explicitly teach in Fig. 1 time-varying measured values are recorded in a temporally sequential manner. However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Radomski in order to understand that (Fig. 2: 76 and 78) and (Fig. 1: 38) would include temporal storage of values in sequential manner since the values are constantly being sensed and update/stored by the controller as indicated by (Fig. 4) along a timeline.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 17-28, 30 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HENRY T LUONG whose telephone number is (571)270-7008. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday: 8:00-6:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Alexander Taningco can be reached at (571) 272-8048. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Henry Luong/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845
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