Appeal No. 2000-1735
Application No. 08/780,930
Focusing our attention on independent claim 1, the examiner relies heavily on the
primary reference to Hashimoto for teaching all of the claimed subject matter but for an
A/D converter for converting the output signal into a digital signal prior to performing clamp
calculations. The examiner relies on Koyama for a teaching that digital feed back
clamping is an improvement over prior art clamping systems and so it would have been
obvious to use a digital signal as the base for calculation of a clamp level in Hashimoto.
The examiner indicated that the combination still lacked the use of an interline transfer
structure imager with multiple horizontal registers and employed Hirota for such a teaching.
Appellants do not argue claim limitations regarding the A/D converter or any
interline transfer structure. Thus, these limitations are not relevant to the issue before us.
Rather, the focus of the arguments on this appeal is on whether Hashimoto teaches
or suggests the claimed switching means, first period defining means, second period
defining means and clamp level calculation means.
The examiner identifies the various claimed elements in Hashimoto as follows:
switching means at column 1, lines 60-69; first period defining means at column 7,
line 67 - column 8, line 7 and back of register ob1 in Figure 4; second period defining
means at column 8, lines 19-54 and front of register ob2 in Figure 4; clamp level
4
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Last modified: November 3, 2007