Appeal No. 2003-1973
Application No. 09/192,952
There is no dispute that Dennen discloses a Fermi-FET having
the claimed features with the exception of having an offset drain
region. Also, appellants acknowledge that Matsumoto is evidence
that it was known in the art to offset the drain region in a
field effect transistor (FET). Accordingly, based on these
undisputed facts, we must concur with the examiner that it would
have been prima facie obvious for one of ordinary skill in the
art to modify the Fermi-FET of Dennen to have an offset drain
region for the purpose of lessening the electric fields near the
drain region in order to prevent avalanche breakdown, as taught
by Matsumoto. In our view, absent objective evidence to the
contrary, since both Dennen and Matsumoto are directed to field
effect transistors, one of ordinary skill in the art would have
found it obvious to employ a known feature of a field effect
transistor, namely, an offset drain region, in the field effect
transistor of Dennen.
Appellants submit that “it would not be known that an offset
drain could be added to a Fermi-FET transistor or conversely, a
Fermi-FET transistor could be equipped with an offset drain,
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