Appeal No. 96-2274
Application No. 08/291,354
rejection, Appellants filed an amendment canceling claim 31
which was entered by the Examiner. Therefore, claims 18
through 21, 25 and 27 through 30 are properly before us for
our consideration on appeal.
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for using
microwave technology to precisely measure the thickness of the
layers of rubber covering the steel belts within a tire as a
function of the phase of the reflected microwave signal.
Independent claim 18 is reproduced as follows:
18. A method for making a determination related to
thickness of a material using microwave signals,
comprising:
providing an apparatus for generating a transmitted
microwave signal;
locating said apparatus relative to the material;
sending said transmitted microwave signal towards
the material using said apparatus and causing said
transmitted signal to be incident on the material;
receiving using said apparatus a reflected microwave
signal reflected by the material;
extracting information from said transmitted signal;
extracting information from said reflected signal;
determining a value using said extracted information
from said transmitted signal and said extracted
information from said reflected signal, with said value
related to phase of an effective reflection coefficient,
said effective reflection coefficient related to a ratio
of said transmitted microwave signal and said reflected
microwave signal, said determining step being dependent on
any distance between said apparatus and the material
and, when a distance is present between said apparatus and
the material, said determining step includes taking
into account said distance and
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