Appeal No. 1997-2074 Page 3
Application No. 08/292,634
Independent claim 1 calls for specific structure relating
to the transducer including, inter alia, a transducer element
for ultrasonic imaging of the human body “having a 2-2 or 1-3
composite structure and driven in a k transverse mode.” The
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examiner does not address these claims limitations.
Claim 1 further calls for a specific relative thickness of
the wafers and polymer layers, “wherein the relative thickness
of the polymer layer is less than that of the wafer...”. The
examiner has pointed to nothing in Kleinschmidt to teach or
suggest these relative thicknesses. In fact, in Kleinschmidt,
the thickness of the polymer layer appears to be greater than
that of the wafer.
The claim also recites that the structure provides
“acoustic impedance matching to the acoustic impedance of a
human body.”
The examiner admits that Kleinschmidt fails to teach the
specifically claimed property values such as impedance and does
not teach the specifically recited relative dimensions, or
thicknesses of the polymer and wafer layers. However, the
examiner holds that “optimizing a known device...via selection
of particular parameters” would have been obvious, within the
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