Appeal No. 1998-1099
Application No. 08/263,180
OPINION
The 35 U.S.C. § 102(b)/35 U.S.C. § 103 rejections of
claims 79 and 81 are reversed.
The examiner has directed our attention to Figure 13 of
Yokoyama for a teaching that either anticipates or would have
rendered obvious the claimed invention (Answer, page 3).
Figure 13 of Yokoyama is a conduction-energy-band diagram
for a hot electron transistor device (column 2, lines 45
through 47). The figure clearly shows that the transistor has
an emitter, a base, and a collector. The same holds true for
an injector connected between the emitter and the base. The
injector includes tunneling barriers 19A1 and 19A2 with
bandgap larger than the bandgaps of the emitter and the base.
The injector also includes a quantum well 19B between the
tunneling barriers with a portion (i.e., the lowermost area of
the quantum well) having a bandgap smaller than the bandgap of
the emitter. The bandgap of the noted portion of the quantum
well is not, however, smaller than the bandgap of the base.
Thus, we agree with appellant’s argument (Brief, page 4) that
Yokoyama neither teaches nor would have suggested “the claim
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