Ex parte KOMATSU - Page 5




                 Appeal No. 1997-4033                                                                                                                   
                 Application No. 08/589,584                                                                                                             


                 lines 21-27).  See also Ishizaka U.S. Patent 5,757,985 (copy                                                                           
                 attached), which at column 5, lines 13-17 describes a Mach-                                                                            
                 Zehnder modulator having a thicker MQW structure in the                                                                                
                 modulator region than in other regions.   Consequently, claim         4                                                                
                 22, which together with  dependent claims 23-26 was added by                                                                           
                 the above-mentioned preliminary amendment, is believed to be                                                                           
                 misdescriptive of appellant's disclosed invention by reciting                                                                          
                 a thinner MQW structure in the active region than in the                                                                               
                 passive regions.  For the same reasons, the above-noted                                                                                
                 amendment to the specification is also believed to be                                                                                  
                 incorrect.                                                                                                                             
                         However, claim 22 is accurate to the extent it specifies                                                                      
                 that using a small mask stripe width in the passive regions                                                                            
                 results in a "band gap wavelength smaller than that provided                                                                           
                 on said active region."  This is consistent with Sasaki's                                                                              
                 Figure 4, which shows that 10 Fm-wide mask stripes result in a                                                                         







                          4Ishizaka, like the application on appeal, is assigned                                                                        
                 to NEC Corporation.                                                                                                                    
                                                                           5                                                                            





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