Appeal No. 1997-2041
Application No. 08/337,131
appellant’s argument, strenuously made here, is that the self-
alignment process forms the floating gate prior to formation of
the diffusion regions.
In rebuttal, the examiner asserts (Answer, page 9) that
Hosokawa `872 teaches two embodiments to form the source/drain
regions and since only one figure is provided, one embodiment
may not be represented by a figure. The examiner insists that
the second embodiment in Hosokawa `872 makes it perfectly clear
that the source and drain regions are formed before the
floating gate (Answer, page 9). In response, the appellant
(Reply brief, page 3) correctly notes that the examiner failed
to provide any explanation as to why the order of formation is
so clear from the referenced passage in Hosokawa `872. The
examiner goes on to argue that the relationship of the center
of the source/drain with respect to the center of the floating
gate fails to disclose anything about the order of processing
of the source/drain and floating gate. Based on the totality
of evidence in the record surrounding the teachings of Hosokawa
`872, we note that there appears to have been a great deal of
speculation on the part of both the examiner and the appellant
with respect to the teachings of Hosokawa `872 and the order of
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