Appeal No. 1999-1796
Application 08/705,149
operations under continuous control of the control signals in
the self refresh mode as implied by Appellant, but only
requires modification in "response thereto"; the control
signals could just trigger a modified operation to take place
during the refresh operation.
The real issue is whether the refresh address test
circuit 30 in Kang in any way "modif[ies] self refreshing
operations of the semiconductor device while it's in the self
refresh test mode." We find that it does not. Element 30
only monitors operations of the refresh address counter 24 for
the purpose of "determining whether all internal refresh
addresses corresponding to a complete self-refresh cycle are
completely generated" (col. 2, lines 28-30). While element 30
produces an output address test signal to data output buffer
28, this is in no way for "modifying self refreshing
operations." Accordingly, the Examiner erred in finding
claim 30 to be anticipated by Kang. The anticipation
rejection of claim 30 is reversed.
Claims 1-5 and 9-29
Claim 1 recites "an interface for receiving self refresh
test control signals from an external device; . . . a self
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