Appeal No. 2001-0726
Application 09/272,969
that a change in the potential at contact 19 or 15 “does not
immediately effect” the operation of receiver diode 12 [reply
brief].
We agree with the examiner that the structure recited in
claim 15 reads on the structure disclosed by Chinen in Figure 2.
First, appellant’s argument that layer 14 of Chinen is not an
integral part of substrate 6 is not persuasive. Claim 15 simply
recites that there are two differently doped surface regions
embodied in the top side of the substrate. We agree with the
examiner that region 14 is clearly embodied in the top surface of
substrate 6 in the resultant structure of Chinen [see Figure 2].
Regions 14 and 6 of Chinen form two differently doped surface
regions in the exact same manner as regions 2 and 3 of the
disclosed invention.
Appellant’s arguments regarding the electrical decoupling
of their invention and of Chinen are also not persuasive.
Appellant’s specification notes that the electrical decoupling
occurs because a p-n junction forms which electrically decouples
the p-redoped surface region 2 from the n-doped surface region 3
[specification, page 9]. We agree with the examiner that the
same electrical decoupling occurs between p-doped region 14 and
n-doped region 6 of Chinen. The specification of this
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