Appeal No. 1999-1631
Application 08/733,586
4b, which shows floating gate 75 in cross-section. That 6
figure also shows a control gate 69a positioned over floating
gate 75 (col. 15, ll. 3-9). Because transistors Q and Q do 1 3
not have floating gates, we assume the unnumbered dashed
rectangles surrounding their symbols designate the control
gates of those transistors.
The examiner, presumably for the purpose of satisfying
claim 1's requirement for "a pair of bit lines extending in a
vertical direction," argues that the vertical direction in
Harari's Figure 4 is the direction of bit line 61 (Answer at
4), which direction runs left/right in the figure. With the
vertical axis thus defined, the horizontal direction in Figure
4 extends along its longer dimension. Appellant's reply brief
does not object to the examiner's choice of directions in the
reference. Comparing claim 1 to Figure 4 with its
directions thus defined, we agree with the examiner that the
gate of the first p-channel transistor (Q ) is offset
1
6Figure 4b reveals that the channel area is considerably
narrower than the floating gate or the control gate. Harari's
statement that "[t]he channel area of each transistor is shown
by a dashed rectangle which surrounds the symbol (e.g., Q ) of
4
that transistor in FIG. 4" (col. 14, l. 67 to col. 15, l. 1)
therefore should not be understood to mean that the rectangles
coincide with the edges of the channel regions.
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