Appeal No. 1998-2966
Application 08/605,566
brief (Paper No. 18) (pages referred to as "RBr__") for
Appellant's arguments thereagainst.
OPINION
The claims stand or fall together with claim 1 (Br4).
The APA and Kobayashi disclose the claimed non-volatile
semiconductor memory device except for the claimed "impurity
introduction conductive layer of the second conductivity type
formed in said contact hole so as to cover said underlying
insulating film exposed to an inner surface of said contact
hole." The devices in the APA and Kobayashi suffer from the
problem addressed and solved by the claimed invention, i.e.,
impurity ion invasion of a floating gate electrode.
Higuchi discloses that in conventional semiconductor
devices, after contact holes are formed in an insulating layer
lying over a conductive layer in the form of an impurity
diffusion layer formed in the semiconductor substrate, a metal
coating is provided thereover, and the conductive layer having
the semiconductor nature and the wiring metal are in direct
contact with each other (col. 1, lines 44-50). A problem with
downsizing the diameter of the contact hole as part of downsizing
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