Ex parte HOSOMIZU et al. - Page 18




          Appeal No. 95-3876                                                           
          Application 08/222,009                                                       

          voltage at the gate in response to a flash terminating signal"               
          is broad enough to describe the operation of Iwata's control                 
          voltage generation circuit 18, which responds to a flash                     
          terminating signal (i.e., the falling edge of the output                     
          signal of NAND gate 28) by turning off transistors 22 and 23,                
          thereby disconnecting the voltage divider resistors 24 and 25                
          from the constant voltage generating circuit 17 and permitting               
          the current stored in the inherent capacitance of the IGBT                   
          gate to discharge to ground through resistor 25, reducing the                
          gate voltage to zero.  Because Iwata's control voltage                       
          generation circuit 18 performs the function required of the                  
          claimed control means, and because appellants have not made a                
          § 112, ¶ 6 argument with respect to this limitation, I would                 
          affirm the rejection of claim 14 as unpatentable for                         
          obviousness over Iwata in view of Hayashi.                                   
                    Claim 8 depends on claim 14 and additionally recites               
          a voltage doubler for applying to the flash firing unit a                    
          voltage of a value approximately twice the voltage of the main               
          capacitor.                                                                   
          The examiner argues (Answer at 4-5) that this limitation reads               
          on Iwata's DC-DC converter 10, which includes an oscillation                 

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