Appeal No. 1998-3135 Page 12
Application No. 08/789,519
disclosed in Figure 2(a), the floating diffusion region 1 only
connects with the output gate OG, the precharge gate PG and
the output terminal SIGNAL VOLTAGE. When adding the
additional diffusion regions and gates to the prior art
invention found in prior art Figure 5(a), the additional gates
and diffusion regions were added in a linear fashion, i.e., in
a straight line along the axis of the charge transfer section.
In Itoh, the prior art embodiment shown in Figure 1(a) also
discloses that the floating diffusion area 401 to be connected
only to the output gate 8, first precharge gate 403, and to
the output terminal.
However, in the embodiments of Itoh that include the
additional gates and diffusion regions, the additional gates
and diffusion regions are turned 90 degrees from the axis of
the charge transfer section 3, as in the embodiments shown in
Figures 4(a) and 5(a). In the embodiment of Figure 6(a) of
Itoh, additional gates and diffusion regions are shown as both
rotated 90 degrees from the axis of the charge transfer
section, and coaxial with the charge transfer section. We
therefore find that none of the embodiments 4(a), 5(a), and
6(a) of Itoh show a floating diffusion region that is only
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007