Appeal No. 95-0142
Application 07/817,961
supplying an inactive gas into the processing vessel and
exhausting the vessel while supplying the inactive gas during as
well as after unloading the wafer from the wafer mounting surface
in the vessel. Further details of this appealed subject matter
are set forth in illustrative claim 25, a copy of which taken
from the appellants' brief is appended to this decision.
The references relied upon by the examiner as evidence of
obviousness are:
Ukai et al. (Ukai) 4,816,638 Mar. 28, 1989
Jucha et al. (Jucha) 4,915,777 Apr. 10, 1990
(filed Mar. 2, 1989)
All of the appealed claims are rejected under the first
paragraph of 35 U.S.C. § 112 which the examiner considers to be
violated by the last two steps recited in each of the independent
claims on appeal.
All of the appealed claims are newly rejected in the answer
under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Jucha in view of
Ukai.
We refer to the principal and reply briefs and to the
principal and supplemental answers for a complete exposition of
the opposing viewpoints advanced by the appellants and the
examiner concerning the above-noted rejections.
OPINION
We cannot sustain either of these rejections.
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