Appeal No. 2001-0607
Application No. 09/244,429
resistance and so as not to decrease the dielectric strength of
the dielectric.
With regard to the rejection of the claims relying on APA in
view of Prall, the examiner makes the same allegations as before
but uses APA for a teaching that “it is common (and therefore
obvious) to form a control gate arrangement with a polysilicon
layer 26 with a silicide layer 28 overlay and a polysilicon cap
layer 30” [answer-pages 4-5].
The examiner then concludes that it would have been obvious
to combine the references to Yoshimi, APA and Gluck in order to
make a control gate electrode with a polysilicon layer overlaid
with a silicide layer and a cap layer, as taught by APA, and to
form dielectric layers free of pitting, as taught by Gluck, in
the device of Yoshimi since this is common in the art and so as
not to decrease strength of the dielectric.
It is our view that the examiner has not established a prima
facie case of obviousness with regard to the instant claimed
subject matter because the claim limitation of “wherein the
control gate arrangement comprises a plurality of silicon-based
layers and has a thickness of no greater than about 800 D” is
not suggested by the applied references.
-5–
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007