Appeal No. 97-2422
Application 07/939,720
embodiment in Figure 8 and the third embodiment in Figure 11.
These figures show that a liquid crystal layer completely fills
the space between the lower substrate and the upper substrate
which are substantially the same size, and that this liquid
crystal material completely covers any and all layers on the
pixel region 103 and the associated transistors 104, as well as
to cover entirely or in part the various drive circuits 112 and
113. This interpretation necessarily would require that any and
all passivation layers would also be covered by such liquid
crystal material.
Although Sawatsubashi does not specifically teach
passivation layers, they would have been necessarily inherent and
obvious to the artisan in the art even without the specific
teachings thereof in Misawa. This is buttressed by the
consideration that in Sawatsubashi's Figure 2 element 4 is an
alignment film which appears to be analogously shown as film 106
in Figures 4, and 11 of this reference. This film obviously
covers all circuit elements on the lower substrate including all
or a part of the respective driver circuits 112 and 113 and the
pixel element circuits as well. This would have clearly
suggested to the artisan that any passivation or protective or
insulating layers below these alignment films would have
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