Appeal No. 1998-0758
Application 08/434,073
THE INVENTION
The appellants claim an evaporation process for applying
a transparent metal oxide layer onto a film. Claim 9 is
illustrative:
9. Process for applying a transparent metal oxide on a
film, comprising
passing a film through a receiver,
vaporizing metal in said receiver to produce vapor phase
metal,
introducing oxygen into said receiver in order to produce
a metal oxide layer on said film, said oxygen being introduced
in an amount which is not sufficient to produce a
stoichiometric metal oxide layer on said film, whereby said
layer is not completely transparent, said layer having an
absorption coefficient,
measuring the absorption coefficient of said layer using
optical sensors, said absorption coefficient providing a means
for determining thickness of the layer,
controlling the rate of vaporizing metal based on the
absorption coefficient, and
subjecting the layer to further oxidation in order to
produce a stoichiometric oxide which is fully transparent.
THE REFERENCES
Preston 2,769,778 Nov. 6,
1956
Nath 4,514,437 Apr. 30,
1985
Feuerstein et al. (Feuerstein) 4,627,989 Dec. 9,
2
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