Appeal No. 1998-1364
Application 08/722,384
Claim 2 recites that "the substantially zero bending
occurs at a transition between tensile stress and compressive
stress at a surface of the sensing structure in response to
the physical condition." This implicitly requires bending in
a constrained structure so as to produce an inflection point
between tensile stress and compressive stress, as shown in
Appellants' figure 2. Since no bending occurs in the inactive
area 34 of Huck, there is no transition between tensile stress
and compressive stress in Huck. Thus, we find that claim 2 is
not anticipated. Claims 3-7, which depend on claim 2 and are
rejected as being anticipated by, or unpatentable over, Huck
incorporate the limitation of claim 2 and are patentable
thereover. Inoue, which is applied to the rejection of
claims 8 and 9 to show an error compensation circuit, does not
cure the deficiency of Huck with respect to claim 2. For
these reasons, the rejections of claims 2-9 are reversed.
Claims 14-17
Independent claim 14 recites a first step of "providing a
sensing structure that bends in response to a physical
condition and develops a membrane stress at a first location
that has substantially zero bending." Thus, claim 14 is not
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