Appeal No. 2003-0312
Application No. 08/871,199 Page 6
Turning to claim 61, the examiner's position (answer, page
4) is that Fouilloy does not specifically state that the image
sensor may be used to image high-energy radiation. To overcome
this deficiency in Fouilloy, the examiner turns to Hack for a
teaching of image sensors may be made sensitive to high-energy
wavelengths. Appellants do not contest the teachings of Hack,
but rather assert (brief, page 6) that the position taken by the
examiner has no merit because in Fouilloy, the circuitry will
accumulate charges below and above V0 when the accumulated
charges remain below V1 and will discard charges below and above
V0 when the accumulated charge rises above V1. Appellants assert
(brief, page 4) that claim 61 recites
a semiconductor radiation imaging device for imaging
high-energy radiation, which includes threshold
circuitry and charge accumulation circuitry, the
threshold circuitry being configured to discard
radiation hits below a predetermined energy threshold,
and the charge accumulation circuitry being configured
to accumulate charge resulting from radiation hits
above the predetermined energy threshold. Thus, only
radiation hits that exceed the threshold are
accumulated. Radiation hits below the threshold are
discarded,
and that Fouilloy teaches the opposite, i.e., that during normal
operation, charges below V1 are accumulated, and that when
charges above V1 are detected, all charges are discarded.
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