Appeal No. 97-1320
Application 08/431,001
There is no suggestion in connection with the admitted
prior art of figure 1 of using a constant current source to
overcome the problem of the turn-off time being much greater
than the turn-on time due. Sedra & Smith discusses biasing
techniques for transistors but contains no teachings that
would be relevant to the problems of waveshaping predrivers.
While Sedra & Smith would be relevant to the problem of
selecting a circuit to provide a constant current source once
the constant current source solution had been conceived, it
does not provide any motivation for providing a constant
current source in a waveshaping predriver circuit in the first
place.
Appellants argue that the Examiner has supplied his own
reasoning based on hindsight. For example, "[the Examiner]
has characterized the problem of the Admitted Prior Art as one
of low output resistance of the input circuit, even though
there is nothing in the Admitted Prior Art that leads one to
this conclusion" (Br7). We agree that the rejections, as
stated, do not point to any factual support in the record for
the stated motivations (i.e., "for the purpose of stabilizing
the power modulator against power supply fluctuations" (First
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