Appeal No. 95-3885
Application 08/172,051
teaches in column 3, line 68, through column 4, line 39,
that the advantage of the resistive layer is to spread out the
current as well as to prevent heat buildup in localized hot
spots.
Reading Shockley as a whole, we find that Shockley
teaches that the resistive layer is placed on the surface of
the semiconductor device to avoid heat buildup within the
device. Furthermore, Shockley teaches that heat buildup
within the semiconductor device is to be avoided and thereby
does not teach using the resistive layer for heating the pn
junction under an overcurrent condition as claimed in
Appellant's claim 1.
Gosch discloses a positive-temperature-coefficient
sensor that can operate at much higher temperatures using
spreading resistance principles similar to those taught by
Shockley. In the figure found on page 73, Gosch discloses a
structure for spreading the resistance which shows a similar
resistive layer as taught by Shockley. However, we fail to
find that Gosch teaches using the resistive layer for heating
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