Appeal 2007-2035
Application 09/848,846
impermissible hindsight reconstruction of the invention using Appellant’s
own disclosure as a blueprint.
Although the Examiner contends that DRAMs typically include
hundreds of different transistors with different threshold voltages, such as
read-out transistors (Answer 6), the Examiner has provided absolutely no
evidence on this record to support this assertion apart from mere conclusory
statements. In any event, even if we assume that DRAM devices include
numerous devices distinct from the peripheral and access devices as the
Examiner asserts, Lowrey still falls well short of teaching providing
different threshold voltages for these other devices using the particular
common mask technique recited in the claims.
In sum, Lowrey reasonably suggests adjusting the threshold voltage of
two devices by selectively applying a halo implant via masking. But this
teaching merely suggests that the implant is either applied or it is not -- a
binary implantation that provides, at best, two different threshold voltages.
Lowrey does not, however, reasonably teach or suggest varying the degree
of masking to vary the degree of resulting halo implant regions (and the
resulting threshold voltages) to achieve three or more threshold voltages, let
alone associating each such threshold voltage with a different device
respectively.
For the foregoing reasons, we will not sustain the Examiner’s
rejection of claims 11, 12, and 14.
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