Appeal No. 95-4174
Application 08/165,553
polysilicon layers, 68 and 72, formed at two different
manufacturing steps, as disclosed by the specification.
The examiner appears to be concerned with the process of
making the BiCMOS structure while the claim is directed to a
final structure of the BiCMOS shown in Figures 1 and 5. No
matter how many manufacturing steps there are in the process,
the final structure to which the claimed invention is directed
is a “single-polysilicon layer BiCMOS.” As appellants point
out [brief-page 5], this is a term of art well known in the
art of semiconductor devices, i.e., a BiCMOS device having
only one distinct polysilicon layer. The single polysilicon
layer in the finished structure is shown at 72 in Figure 1,
for example. The polysilicon layer 68, referred to by the
examiner, is no longer a separate entity in the final
structure, having been merged with polysilicon layer 72 during
the manufacturing process [see page 20, lines 23-26 of the
specification]. The examiner has not convinced us that there
is anything unclear or indefinite about the claimed “single-
polysilicon layer BiCMOS structure.”
We now turn to the rejections of claims 14 and 21 under
5
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