Appeal No. 2005-0855 2
Application No. 10/269,807
a supplemental brief (filed August 2, 2004). The examiner,
implicitly granting the request, entered a second answer (mailed
September 14, 2004) and forwarded the application to this Board
for review of the new rejections of claims 1 and 8 through 39.
THE INVENTION
The invention relates to “methods . . . for performing non-
destructive testing of materials using positron annihilation”
(specification, page 1). Representative claim 1 reads as
follows:
1. A method, comprising:
determining whether a specimen to be tested includes at
least one positron emitter therein that will be activated in
response to photon bombardment;
selecting a positron emitter to be activated;
determining a threshold photon energy required to activate
the selected positron emitter;
determining a half-life of the selected positron emitter;
and
when the half-life of the selected positron emitter is less
than a selected half-life, then performing a rapid
activation/analysis process, said rapid activation/analysis
process comprising:
activating for an activation time the selected positron
emitter by bombarding the specimen with photons having energies
at least as great as the threshold photon energy;
detecting for a detection time gamma rays produced by
annihilation of positrons with electrons in the specimen; and
repeating said steps of activating for an activation time
and detecting for a detection time until detecting a sufficient
number of gamma rays to determine at least one material
characteristic of said specimen;
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