Appeal No. 1999-1631
Application 08/733,586
dimension (i.e., length) of a cell. Appellant's argument that
cell width is defined in the paragraph bridging pages 1 and 2
of the specification is unconvincing, because that paragraph
does not explain how these dimensions are measured. Nor is
this measurement technique apparent from appellant's disclosed
examples. Referring to Figures 2 and 3, the cell origins
(0,0)
(Specification at 7, l. 3; at 9, l. 17) are not aligned with
the left-most and bottom-most points of the structure depicted
in those figures. Instead, the cell origins appear to be
located at the lower left-hand corners of features 180 (Fig.
2) and 280 (Fig. 3), which are described as subsequent metal
layers "used to route ground, Vss" (id. at 7, ll. 14-15; at 9,
ll. 23-25 ). 3
However, the points which correspond to the upper right-hand
corners of the cells are not identified in the figures,
thereby leaving it unclear how the width and length of the
cell are measured. Furthermore, it is not understood how the
cell width in the Figure 2 layout can be only 6.9 microns (id.
3The second cited passage incorrectly gives the
reference numeral in Figure 3 as 180 instead of 280.
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