Appeal No. 1998-0758
Application 08/434,073
display screen, at least the film thickness bar chart is
calibrated, and the local evaporation power is adjusted to
correct any deviation shown by the film thickness bar chart
(col. 2, lines 46-58). The film thickness can be measured
optically (col. 3, lines 8-12).
The examiner argues that it would have been obvious to
one of ordinary skill in the art to substitute Nath’s
evaporation process for Preston’s sputtering process because
both processes are for depositing thin transparent metal oxide
coatings, including indium and/or tin oxide, both plasma
chemical vapor deposition and sputtering were well known
techniques for depositing layers onto substrates, and the
processes would have been expected to produce similar results
(answer, pages 5 and 8-9).
Preston, however, points out that both sputtering and
evaporation were known in the art for forming thin,
transparent electrically conductive films (col. 1, lines 26-
30), but discloses only sputtering for his particular process
wherein the color of the film is monitored and the oxygen
content in the sputtering chamber is adjusted accordingly.
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