Appeal No. 2005-1295
Application No. 10/376,682
Appellants do not contest the examiner’s interpretation of representative claim 1,
whereby the language regarding the high voltage generator “generating two or more
different erase and write voltages” may be interpreted as requiring no more than one
voltage for writing and one for erasing. The examiner finds, further, that at least the
combination of the Vcg (control gate voltage) generating circuit and the Vpp (bit line
voltage) generating circuit (Fig. 1) of the reference is a “high voltage generator” within
the meaning of claim 1. The examiner contends that, as described at column 7 of the
reference, Vpp generates a voltage of 20V for an erase operation, and Vcg generates a
voltage of 0V for a write operation.
Appellants argue, in the Brief, that 0V is merely a reference signal; the high
voltage generator taught by Koizumi for writing and/or erasing operates with a single
voltage consisting of a 20V power signal and a 0V reference signal. The examiner, in
response, reiterates that 0V can be considered a generated power supply voltage. The
examiner refers, for support of the position, to column 6, lines 41 through 45 of Koizumi,
which indicates that Vcg can “generate power supply voltages of 20V, 2V, and 0V in
accordance with the kind of operation.”
Appellants respond in turn, in the Reply Brief, that a person of ordinary skill in the
art would not consider 0V to be a “generated” voltage, as 0V is a reference for terminal
outputs of, for example, 5V or 20V.
We do not find appellants’ theories, as set out in the Reply Brief, persuasive as to
why an artisan could not consider 0V to be a generated voltage in the context of the
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