Appeal No. 1997-2041
Application No. 08/337,131
examiner has failed to establish that the process of forming
the source and drain before the formation of the floating gate
represented a conventionally-known technique at the time of the
invention by the appellant. Further, the examiner has failed
to provide any motivation why one skilled in the art would be
driven to form the source and drain prior to the floating gate.
The examiner draws our attention to a certain passage
(Answer, page 7) in Hosokawa `872 that states that 'the
floating gate region (4) ... are formed in such a way that they
will be stretched across the source region (2) and drain region
(3) ...' (Answer page 7)(emphasis added). From this passage,
the examiner contends that the implication is that the floating
gate is formed subsequent to the source/drain. In response,
the appellant asserts (Brief, pages 5 and 6) that the phrase
“they will be stretched across the source region (2) and drain
region (3)...” represents the future tense and therefore,
Hosokawa `872 forms the source and drain regions asymmetrically
subsequent to the formation of the floating gate. Here, we are
not persuaded by the examiner’s or the appellant’s arguments.
11
Page: Previous 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007