Appeal No. 2001-0740
Application 09/054,415
during a portion of its operating time and providing another
level to said element during another portion of its operating
time" as recited in claim 9 (Br13).
The examiner repeats the reasoning given for claim 1 (EA17).
Claim 9 recites two different power output levels connected
to an active element, each applied during a "portion of its
operating time." We agree with the examiner that a "portion of
its operating time" is a portion of the operational time when one
bias current level is applied. Appellants do not contest that
Wang discloses the user selecting different resolutions at
different times during operation, so this limitation is met.
Appellants further argue (Br15) that the examiner erred in
finding that "[d]ue to switched capacitor input circuit 2, the
input to amplifier 5 [in Wang] can be deemed a digital signal,
thus anticipating claim 9" (FR9). It is argued that the output
of the switched capacitor input circuit 2 is a sampled analog
value and not a digital value.
Although appellants do not correlate the arguments to any
claim language, it appears that appellants argue that Wang does
not teach an amplifier having "an input receiving a digital
signal." We agree that the input to amplifier 5 in Wang is not a
"digital signal," i.e., a signal having only two possible values.
Thus, the rejection of claim 9 is reversed.
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