Ex parte HOSOMIZU et al. - Page 34




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

          ("[T]he actual words of the claim are the controlling                        
          focus.").                                                                    
                    Appellants implicitly invoke paragraph six in their                
          appeal brief where they rely on specific structures from the                 
          specification in explaining the scope of their claim.  (Paper                
          No. 18 (Sub. App. Br.) at 5.)                                                
                         In contrast to the arrangement                                
                    disclosed in the Iwata et al patent,                               
                    in the circuit of the present                                      
                    invention the voltage at the gate of                               
                    the IGBT is positively removed, so                                 
                    that flash firing quickly stops and                                
                    the amount of emitted flash light is                               
                    more accurately controlled.  Referring                             
                    to the circuit of Figure 1, for                                    
                    example, when the firing of the flash                              
                    is to be terminated, a logic high                                  
                    signal is generated at the STOP                                    
                    terminal of the control circuit 4.                                 
                    This signal renders the transistor Q6                              
                    conducting, which in turn bring the                                
                    transistors Q4 and Q5 into a non-                                  
                    conducting state.  As a result, the                                
                    supply of voltage from the                                         
                    capacitor C2 to the gate of the IGBT                               
                    is interrupted.  At the same time, the                             
                    transistor Q3 is brought into a                                    
                    conducting state, to lower the voltage                             
                    at the gate of the IGBT, thereby                                   
                    removing any capacitance component.                                
                    Consequently, the IGBT is immediately                              
                    turned off, and the flash is promptly                              
                    extinguished.                                                      



                                        - 34 -                                         





Page:  Previous  27  28  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  40  41  Next 

Last modified: November 3, 2007