Appeal No. 2006-1881 Application 10/145,408 We turn next to the separate rejection of dependent claims 14 and 15 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 over Ker in view of Botker. These claims set forth a pre-drive transistor communicating with the respective first and second voltage comparators recited in independent claim 7 on appeal. The third embodiment beginning in figure 27 of Ker shows element 515 as comprising pre-drive circuits. Thus, because the description of this element is with respect to plural circuits, there must be separate transistors therein to be separately compatible with PMOS transistor Mp1 and NMOS transistor Mn1 comprising the driver circuit 510 in figures 28 through 30 of Ker. On the other hand, the examiner’s apparent reliance upon Botker at column 2, lines 4 and 5 to indicate that a transistor may be configured as a diode when it has a gate-to-drain connection is already taught in Ker at column 8, lines 56 through 61 and shown comparatively in figures 12 through 15, 21, 22, 25 and 26 as well. With respect to the actual embodiment relied upon by the examiner, attention is directed to figure 30 and the discussion at the middle of column 20. 5Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007