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.
Claims 2-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lazenby (US 2006/0241490 A1) and Daft (US 2007/0242567 A1).
Regarding claim 2, Lazenby teaches an ultrasonic imaging system comprising:
a) an ultrasonic transducer comprising a plurality of [transducer elements] [[0046][0047]]; and
b) one or more circuitries connected to the plurality of [transducer elements], the one or more circuitries electronically configured to enable [[0035][0054][0055][0056][0057]]:
i) ultrasonic pulse transmission from the ultrasonic transducer [[0002][0034]];
ii) receiving a reflected ultrasonic signal at the ultrasonic transducer [[0020][0035]];
iii) electronic control configured to focus the ultrasonic pulse or the reflected ultrasonic signal in an elevation direction [[0002][0018][0036]]; and
wherein: the pulse transmission and reception of the reflected ultrasonic signal are used for focusing the reflected ultrasonic signal in an azimuth direction using a first beamformer, elevation focus is achieved using a second beamformer, and focus in the elevation direction is achieved in a receiver by digitally applying delays [[fig. 1] shows first stage beamformer #14 and second stage beamformer #16; [abstract][0002][0003][0047][0050][0051][0053]].
Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Daft teaches pMUT transducer elements [[0025] elements are piezoelectric or capacitive membrane ultrasound transducers], each of the plurality of pMUT transducer elements having two or more terminals [[0025] piezoelectric elements may be single crystal, ceramic blocks, multi-layer, films, or other now known or later developed transducer elements].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to implement the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with the piezoelectric transducer elements as taught by Daft because transmit elements provide for divergent or volume scanning in azimuth and elevation and beams focused in both azimuth and elevation may be used (Daft) [[0027]].
Regarding claim 3, Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Daft teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 2, wherein the plurality of transducer elements is arranged in one or more rows and one or more columns [[fig. 5] shows row and columns of transducers; [0004] two dimensional arrays; [0025] elements are piezoelectric or capacitive membrane ultrasound transducers].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to implement the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with the piezoelectric transducer elements as taught by Daft because transmit elements provide for divergent or volume scanning in azimuth and elevation and beams focused in both azimuth and elevation may be used (Daft) [[0027]].
Regarding claim 4, Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Daft teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 3, wherein the plurality of transducer elements comprises a top section, a central section, and a bottom section, each of which comprise a number of rows and a number of columns for the pulse transmission and reception of the reflected ultrasonic signal [[0040] co-array from a top and bottom line-source firing combined with the receive aperture (see FIG. 4), a virtual line source of transmit elements 30 is provided inside the receive aperture, such as at the center], wherein the pulse transmission and reception of the reflected ultrasonic signal from the sections are used for focusing the reflected ultrasonic signal in an azimuth direction using a first beamformer, and wherein elevation focus is achieved using a second beamformer [[0027] because transmit elements provide for divergent or volume scanning in azimuth and elevation and beams focused in both azimuth and elevation may be used; [0054] the beamformer 16 is operable to at least partially beamform along a first dimension, such as beamforming in azimuth. In the other dimension, such as elevation, the beamformer 16 outputs parallel samplings. Alternatively, partial beamforming (e.g., sub-array beamforming) is provided along multiple dimensions or not performed].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to implement the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with the azimuth and elevation beamforming as taught by Daft because transmit elements provide for divergent or volume scanning in azimuth and elevation and beams focused in both azimuth and elevation may be used (Daft) [[0027]].
Claims 5-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lazenby (US 2006/0241490 A1) and Daft (US 2007/0242567 A1) as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of Zhao (US 2018/0372691 A1).
Regarding claim 5, Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Zhao teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 3, wherein each transducer element on a column is driven by at least one multilevel pulse generated by the one or more circuitries [[0002] ultrasound transducers are constructed from piezoelectric materials, such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT). Another type of ultrasound transducer that has been developed for various applications including ultrasound imaging is the capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT). Similar to a PZT transducer, a CMUT transducer may be activated by electrical pulses to generate acoustic signals that propagate in tissues; [0018] matrix array the aperture subsets can consist of an entire column and/or row or subsets of a row and/or column or multiple rows and/or columns; [0050] above example may be extended to include multiple different bias voltage levels during transmission as well; [0019] may include at least two electrodes arranged proximate to each other with a transducing space between them. One of the two electrodes is moveable toward and away from the other to perform the energy conversion between acoustic energy and electrical energy ].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with two or more electrode transducers as taught by Zhao so that transducer efficiency is improved (Zhao) [[0019]].
Regarding claim 6, Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Zhao teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 5, wherein pulse magnitude, width, shape, pulse frequency, or their combinations of the at least one multilevel pulse are electrically programmable [[0018] beam may be created by applying electric pulses to the CMUT elements with slightly different timing for the pulses applied to each different CMUT element. The timing control may be achieved through the use of a beamformer that contains analog or digital delay components. In addition to controlling the signal timing, the strength of the signal at each CMUT element may be adjusted to improve beam features such as for minimizing sidelobes that reduce image contrast; [0036] by applying a bias voltage to the CMUT cells 210, an initial load may be placed on the membrane 224, which may change the resonant frequency of the respective CMUT cells 210; [0075] applying different bias voltages to rows in a CMUT array according to some implementations. The process may be executed, at least in part by a processor programmed or otherwise configured by executable instructions].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with pulse control as taught by Zhao so that transducer efficiency is improved (Zhao) [[0019]].
Regarding claim 7, Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Zhao teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 5, wherein one or more of: a delay of pulse onset or a number of pulses in the at least one multilevel sequence is electrically programmable [[0018][0036][0075]].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with pulse control as taught by Zhao so that transducer efficiency is improved (Zhao) [[0019]].
Claims 8-15 and 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lazenby (US 2006/0241490 A1) and Daft (US 2007/0242567 A1) as applied to claim 2 above, and further in view of Haque (US 2018/0153510 A1).
Regarding claim 8, Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Haque teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 2, wherein the one or more of the plurality of pMUT transducer elements are poled in two directions on different portions thereof, wherein a strength of polarization varies depending on location of the one or more elements of the plurality of pMUT transducer elements on a row [[0163] a line unit, which refers to a column (or row) of O electrode electrically coupled to an 0 conductor; [0165] transmit driver 3018 may be a multistage drive and may generate an output with two or more levels of a signaling. The signaling can be unipolar or bipolar. In embodiments, the transmit driver 3018 may include a switch interconnecting an input to an output of a driver under electronic control of the driver; [0190] piezoelectric elements in the leftmost column (which is denoted as −N in FIG. 37B) and the piezoelectric elements in the rightmost column (which is denoted as N in FIG. 37B) may have the lowest weight, while the piezoelectric elements in the middle column may have the highest weight. This process is known as apodization; [0190] apodization, where the weighting of the transmit drive varies based on where a particular line is located within the transmit aperture energized], and wherein each of the one or more of the plurality of pMUT transducer elements comprises at least three terminals [[0099] piezoelectric element 1030 may include two sub piezoelectric elements (or shortly sub elements) 1031-1 and 1031-2. In embodiments, each sub element may be a three terminal device].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with apodization as taught by Haque so that side lobes of a radiated signal are greatly attenuated allowing for a higher quality image (Haque) [[0166]].
Regarding claim 9, Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Haque teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 8, wherein poling strength is stronger for center rows and weaker for outer rows thereby creating apodization in the elevation direction [[0190] piezoelectric elements in the leftmost column (which is denoted as −N in FIG. 37B) and the piezoelectric elements in the rightmost column (which is denoted as N in FIG. 37B) may have the lowest weight, while the piezoelectric elements in the middle column may have the highest weight. This process is known as apodization].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with apodization as taught by Haque so that side lobes of a radiated signal are greatly attenuated allowing for a higher quality image (Haque) [[0166]].
Regarding claim 10, Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Haque teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 2, wherein the control is in real time [[0122] LNA may reside in the ASIC chip 1804 and another LNA and programmable gain amplifier (PGA) may reside in the AFE. The gain of each LNA 1811 may be programmed in real time, allowing the LNA to be part of a time gain compensation function (TGC) needed for the imager].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with real time control as taught by Haque so that images can be obtained in real time (Haque) [[0122]].
Regarding claim 11, Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Haque teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 2, further comprising an external lens positioned on top of the plurality of transducer elements, the external lens configured to provide additional focus in the elevation direction [[0072] a transceiver tile(s) 210 for transmitting and receiving pressure waves; a coating layer 212 that operates as a lens for steering the propagation direction of and/or focusing the pressure waves and also functions as an impedance interface between the transceiver tile and the human body 110; [0075] Beam focus in the elevation direction. which is along the direction of the length of the column, is not essential in this case, because it can be electronically implemented in control unit 202. Even then, the lens may be designed with a focus in some cases].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with lens as taught by Haque so beam may be focused in the elevation direction in some cases (Haque) [[0075]].
Regarding claim 12, Lazenby teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 2, wherein the one or more circuitries comprises one or more of: a transmit driver circuit, a receive amplifier circuit, or a control circuit [[0100] signal waveform driving the transmit driver can also be a frequency varying signal or a phase varying signal or other complex coded signals; [0100] charge may be signal processed by amplifiers, filters and eventually digitized by an A/D converter; [0142] circuit elements in the ASIC chip may be electronically controlled].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with driver, receiver, and control as taught by Haque so that beams may be electronically focused by control of a chip (Haque) [[0142]].
Regarding claim 13, Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Haque teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 12, wherein the transmit driver circuit is configured to drive one or more of the plurality of pMUT transducer elements on a column and is driven by signals from a transmit channel, wherein the signals of the transmit channel are delayed electronically relative to delay applied to other transmit channels driving other one or more of the plurality of pMUT transducer elements on different columns [[0079] to create a line element, a column of N piezoelectric elements 302 may be connected electrically in parallel. Then, this line element may provide transmission and reception of ultrasonic signals similar to those achieved by a continuous piezoelectric element that is almost N times longer than each element. This line element may be called a column or line or line element interchangeably; [0188] line units may be driven with multiple pulses that have phase differences (or equivalently delays). By adjusting the phases, the resultant pressure waves may be steered at an angle, which is referred to as beamforming.; [0209] relative delay between transmit driver waveform of the various drivers].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with column line driving as taught by Haque so that beams may be electronically steered at an angle (Haque) [[0188]].
Regarding claim 14, Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Haque teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 13, wherein the transmit channel and additional transmit channels are configured to electrically control relative delays between adjacent columns, and wherein the control circuit is configured to set relative delays for a first number of transducer elements on the column such that the first number of transducer elements that are in a same row share a substantially similar relative delay to a second number of transducer elements of a starting row [[0079][0188][0163] a line unit, which refers to a column (or row) of O electrode electrically coupled to an 0 conductor, may operate as a transmit unit or a receive unit or both; [0167] in embodiments, each column (or row) of piezoelectric element array may be operated a line unit, as discussed in conjunction with FIGS. 28 and 29. For instance, a same pulse may be simultaneously applied to a column of piezoelectric elements so that the column of piezoelectric elements may generate pressure waves simultaneously].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with column/row line driving as taught by Haque so that the same pulse may be simultaneously applied to a column/row of piezoelectric elements so that the column/row of piezoelectric elements may generate pressure waves simultaneously (Haque) [[0167]].
Regarding claim 15, Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Haque teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 13, wherein the transmit channel and additional transmit channels are configured to electronically control relative delays between adjacent columns and wherein the control circuit is configured to set relative delays for transducer elements on the column such that a first number of transducer elements in a same row have independent delays compared to a second number of transducer elements on the same row for other columns [[0196] to create a line element, a multiplicity of drivers controlling a column (or row) of pixels may be turned on electronically. In embodiments, the number of drivers in each line imager/unit can be electrically modified under program control and electronically adjustable, i.e., the line imager having the piezoelectric elements are electrically configurable; [0209] transmit beamformer 3834 may include multiple transmit driver 3836 and other circuitry not shown to control the relative delay between transmit driver waveform of the various drivers, and other circuitry not shown to control the frequency and the number of pulses for each of the transmit drivers].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with column/row line driving as taught by Haque so that the same pulse may be simultaneously applied to a column/row of piezoelectric elements so that the column/row of piezoelectric elements may generate pressure waves simultaneously (Haque) [[0167]].
Regarding claim 17, Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Haque teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 12, wherein the control circuit is configured to electrically control relative delays thereby controlling slice thickness in the elevation direction [[0209] transmit driver 3836 and other circuitry not shown to control the relative delay between transmit driver waveform of the various drivers].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with column/row line driving as taught by Haque so that the same pulse may be simultaneously applied to a column/row of piezoelectric elements so that the column/row of piezoelectric elements may generate pressure waves simultaneously (Haque) [[0167]].
Regarding claim 18, Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Haque teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 12, wherein the control circuit is configured to electrically control relative delays between drive pulses for transducer elements located on a same column [[0196] to create a line element, a multiplicity of drivers controlling a column (or row) of pixels may be turned on electronically. In embodiments, the number of drivers in each line imager/unit can be electrically modified under program control and electronically adjustable, i.e., the line imager having the piezoelectric elements are electrically configurable; [0209] transmit beamformer 3834 may include multiple transmit driver 3836 and other circuitry not shown to control the relative delay between transmit driver waveform of the various drivers, and other circuitry not shown to control the frequency and the number of pulses for each of the transmit drivers].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with column/row line driving as taught by Haque so that the same pulse may be simultaneously applied to a column/row of piezoelectric elements so that the column/row of piezoelectric elements may generate pressure waves simultaneously (Haque) [[0167]].
Regarding claim 19, Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Haque teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 12, wherein the control circuit is configured to electrically control relative delays of a column to be symmetrical with respect to a transducer element at a center row of the column [[0188] line units may be driven with multiple pulses that have phase differences (or equivalently delays). By adjusting the phases, the resultant pressure waves may be steered at an angle, which is referred to as beamforming [0190] piezoelectric elements in the leftmost column (which is denoted as −N in FIG. 37B) and the piezoelectric elements in the rightmost column (which is denoted as N in FIG. 37B) may have the lowest weight, while the piezoelectric elements in the middle column may have the highest weight. This process is known as apodization].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with delay or phase difference driving by Haque so beam may be steered at an angle (Haque) [[0188]].
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lazenby (US 2006/0241490 A1), Daft (US 2007/0242567 A1), and Haque (US 2018/0153510 A1) as applied to claim 12 above, and further in view of Chen (US 2018/0153510 A1).
Regarding claim 16, Chen teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 12, wherein the control circuit is configured to electrically control relative delays to be linearly increasing in a column thereby steering an ultrasonic beam in the elevation direction [[0112] column drivers are programmed to supply a linear delay profile with respect to each other, thus generating plane-wave wavefronts tilted at different angles (.alpha.1 . . . .alpha.p) along X direction, implementing the azimuth plane-wave steering. Similarly, to achieve steering along the elevation (Y) direction, as shown in FIG. 11B, the Tx aperture is arranged in row-parallel mode … delay-and-sum beamforming values can be generated (1230). For example, given a Tx planewave angle along azimuth a, or elevation 13, the delay-and-sum beamforming delay values].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with driving of columns or rows with a linear delay profile as taught by Chen so the wave may be steered at an angle (Chen) [[0112]].
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lazenby (US 2006/0241490 A1), Daft (US 2007/0242567 A1), and Haque (US 2018/0153510 A1) as applied to claim 12 above, and further in view of Savord (US 6,013,032 A).
Regarding claim 20, Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Savord teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 12, wherein the control circuit is configured to electrically control relative delays to be piecewise linearly increasing or decreasing in a column, and wherein a number of piecewise linear delay segments is an integer that is no less than 2 [[para. 28] static focusing can be obtained by steering each subarray at a slightly different angle. This may be thought of as a piecewise linear approximation to the focus delay equation.; [para. 36] using the two-dimensional transducer array and the subarray beamformers, the system can parallel process receive beams in azimuth and elevation simultaneously.; noted: piecewise linear inherently involves two or more line segments].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with the piecewise linear delay focusing as taught by Savord so that a sloped delay profile may be approximated by multiple delay lines.
Claim 21 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lazenby (US 2006/0241490 A1), Daft (US 2007/0242567 A1), and Haque (US 2018/0153510 A1) as applied to claim 12 above, and further in view of Mehi (US 2007/0239001 A1).
Regarding claim 21, Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Mehi teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 12, wherein the control circuit is configured to electrically control relative delays along a column to be a summation of a linear delay and an arbitrary, fine delay [[0337] delays for steering and dynamic focusing are implemented in two steps: 1) a coarse delay stage that implements a delay which is an integral number of sample clocks cycles, and 2) an interpolation filter that interpolates to 1/16 of a wavelength time positions in between the coarse samples; [0171] if the desired delay is one sample period, then shifting by one sample in the appropriate direction provides a signal with the appropriate delay. However, if a delay of a value not equal to the sample period is desired, a fine delay can be implemented using an interpolation filter 1809].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with coarse and fine delay steering and focusing as taught by Mehi so that delays less than a sample period may be generated (Mehi) [[0171]].
Claim 22 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lazenby (US 2006/0241490 A1), Daft (US 2007/0242567 A1), and Haque (US 2018/0153510 A1) as applied to claim 12 above, and further in view of Yao (US 2003/0216645 A1).
Regarding claim 22, Lazenby does not explicitly teach and yet Yao teaches the ultrasonic imaging system of Claim 2, wherein elevation apodization and the elevation focus is performed electronically to minimize movement errors [[0002] for real-time imaging of moving structures, 20 or more, such as 35, two or three-dimensional representations are generated each second; [0005] increase the resolution, the volumes scanned per-second is decreased, allowing more beams to be used in the same sized volume. Real time three-dimensional imaging is sacrificed for per resolution; [0020] using the relative delays and apodization, the transmit beamformer 12 causes acoustic energy transmitted from the transducer array 16 to be focused in an elevation dimension along a scan plane. No, some or minimal focusing may be provided along a lateral dimension within the scan plane.].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to combine the multi-stage beamforming as taught by Lazenby, with using relative delays and apodization along the elevation dimension as taught by Yao so that resolution may be increased by allowing more beams to be used in the same volume (Yao) [[0005]].
Conclusion
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/JONATHAN D ARMSTRONG/ Examiner, Art Unit 3645
