Appeal No. 1999-1656
Application No. 08/638,759
other than the (positive) first-order diffracted light, which would otherwise enter an adjacent
sensor group as stray light. Id. at col. 9, l. 53 - col. 10, l. 33. A similar apparatus is
described at column 10, line 54 through column 11, line 14, and shown in Figure 26, but
with light-intercepting masks 106, 109.
In arguments with regard to the scope of the claimed “numerical aperture limiting
member,” appellant offers one definition (Brief at 12), from the Handbook of Optics, for
“numerical aperture.” Appellant offers another definition in the Reply Brief (at 10-11) from
the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, which is substantially the
same as that we find in another reference. “Numerical aperture Optics. a measure
specifying the resolving power of a microscope, calculated by multiplying the refractive
index of the medium occupying the objective space by the sine of the angle between the
most oblique ray entering the objective and the optical axis.” Academic Press Dictionary of
Science and Technology, Harcourt, available at
http://www.harcourt.com/dictionary/def/7/0/4/5/7045800.html (Feb. 8, 2002).
However, appellant discloses several environments in which the numerical aperture
limiting member is put to use. In only one (Fig. 7) is the member, as louver 30, used within
a microscope optical system. Even there, louver 30 is not in a position to limit light
entering the objective lens (i.e., first lens group 96), and therefore cannot be a “numerical
aperture limiting member” in the terms of the definition offered in the Reply Brief. Further,
even in view of the broader Handbook of Optics definition (Exhibit A filed with the Brief),
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