Appeal No. 1996-3121
Application No. 08/115,783
compound, nitrogen gas is also “inputted” to the Yamazaki
reaction chamber to prevent the growth of lattice defects in
the diamond film. See column 1, lines 60-64.
The equation set forth in appealed claim 1 (which defines
" in terms of the nitrogen gas concentration B, the carbon
atom concentration A, and the oxygen atom concentration C) is
not disclosed in the prior art references relied upon by the
examiner. The examiner contends, however, that Yamazaki’s
described use of reactant gas mixture of methanol , hydrogen 6
and nitrogen would necessarily satisfy the requirements of
appellants’ " equation, and appellants have not specifically
challenged the examiner’s factual finding. See the answer at
page 3. Therefore, we accept this finding as correct.
Accordingly, Yamazaki identically describes a CVD process for
producing diamond as required by appealed claim 1 with the
exception of the requirement that the carbon atoms must
12 13
comprise “99.9% or more C or C”. The narrow question thus
6Since methanol is the sole source of the carbon and
oxygen atoms in the prior art CVD plasma, the factor (A -1.2C)
in the equation is a negative number and thus the " value is
also a negative number. Therefore, the calculated " value is
less than 13 as required by the appellants’ claims for this
prior art embodiment.
7
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