Appeal No. 1997-1757
Application No. 08/450,145
will not sustain the rejection of claims 5, 7 and 8 under 35
U.S.C. § 112, second paragraph.
Finally, we turn to the rejection of the claims under 35
U.S.C. § 103. The examiner applies Baliga against the instant
claimed subject matter by identifying a semiconductor layer 12
and a first portion 42 of the semiconductor layer which has
defects. This is no different than what appellant has
admitted was known. Then, the examiner concludes that it
would have been obvious “that the carrier lifetime in the
first portion is different from the remaining portion of the
semiconductor layer” [answer, page 5]. The examiner points to
Exhibit A, attached to the answer in order to illustrate the
path for most of the main current and the remaining portion.
However, we find nothing in Baliga suggesting any non-uniform
defects throughout the semiconductor layer and our review of
the examiner’s Exhibit A discloses nothing which would
indicate any such non-uniformity of defects which leads to
different carrier lifetimes between a first portion and a
remaining portion of the semiconductor layer.
With no teaching by Baliga that defects in the
semiconductor layer are applied in any manner but uniformly,
5
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