Appeal No. 1997-1140
Application No. 08/175,865
from the final rejection of claims 23-26 and 28-34. Claims 2
27 and 35-37 are also pending in the application and have been
allowed by the examiner. See Paper No. 17.
Claims 23 and 30 are illustrative of the subject matter
on appeal and have been reproduced below:3
23. A method of etching a CaF surface, comprising the steps
2
of:
(a) contacting said surface with water; and
(b) irradiating said surface with visible and/or
ultraviolet radiant energy at an intensity sufficient to
produce directional etching of said surface.
30. A method of patterning a CaF film deposited on a
2
substrate, said method comprising:
(a) constructing a mask of patterned photoresist
overlying said film, thereby dividing said film into exposed
areas and covered areas;
(b) contacting said exposed areas with water; and
(c) directionally etching said CaF film from said exposed
2
areas using radiant energy at an intensity sufficient to
produce directional etching of said film.
The rejections at issue in this appeal are based solely
2The rejection of claim 31 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 was
withdrawn by the examiner in the Answer. See Answer, p. 2.
3We note that an incorrect copy of claim 23 appears in the
appendix to the brief. A corrected copy of claim 23 has been
reproduced in this Decision on Appeal.
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