Appeal No. 1998-3043
Application 08/667,587
Independent claim 10 and dependent claims 12 and 34, to
the extent argued by the appellants, require the presence of 2
a connection conductor to connect an element located in a
first region on a semiconductor substrate and an element
located in a second region on the semiconductor substrate
where the two regions are isolated by a field oxide film and
where the conductor contacts and is directly on the field
oxide film. The examiner acknowledges that Tanaka fails to
show interconnection across the field oxide film (answer at 4,
lines 2-4), but states (answer at 4, lines 4-5): “Chen
provides for such structure in the interconnection [119]
between adjacent CMOS devices.” The position taken by the
examiner does not adequately support a conclusion of
obviousness for the appellants’ claimed invention. In Chen,
the connection conductor 119 does not contact the field oxide
film as is required by appellants’ independent claim 10. (See
Chen Figure 1). The examiner has made no explanation as to
why it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in
the art to incorporate a connection conductor which contacts
and extends on the field oxide film. Accordingly, the
2Brief at 3, lines 17-27 and at 6, lines 23-26.
13
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