Appeal No. 1998-3043
Application 08/667,587
important feature of the appellants’ claimed invention.
Additionally, it should be noted that according to the
appellants’ specification, the gate electrode of the
appellants’ field-shield isolation structure must be kept at a
constant potential, either at ground or at the level of the
power source, depending on the type of circuit element being
isolated, in order to achieve isolation. The examiner has not
demonstrated that Tanaka’s floating gate electrode 4 and
control gate electrode 9 are confined to a fixed or constant
potential.
The examiner states (answer at 5): “[I]t is not
understood based upon a prior art IEDM reference how Applicant
can claim novelty on this [field-shield isolation] feature.
It is not understood why Applicant would cite this reference
for definition purposes and then allege patentability [based]
on this very feature.” The short answer to that question, as
indicated by the appellants (Reply from page 4, line 20 to
page 5, line 1), is:
[A]pplicant does not allege patentability simply on
a field shield isolation structure. All of the
independent claims [except for claim 10] on appeal
recite both a field oxide film and field shield
isolation structures formed on the same
semiconductor substrate in order to obtain a high
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