Appeal No. 1999-1451
Application No. 08/481,593
BACKGROUND
The appellant's invention relates to an electrostatic wafer clamp. An understanding of
the invention can be derived from a reading of exemplary claim 1, which is reproduced
below.
1. Apparatus for electrostatic clamping of a workpiece, comprising:
a platen including at least three platen sections, said at least three platen sections
comprising a conductive material and being electrically isolated from each other;
a dielectric material disposed on said at least three platen sections, said dielectric
materials having a clamping surface for receiving a workpiece; and
means for applying a polyphase clamping voltage to said platen, said at least three
platen sections being connected to different phases of said polyphase clamping voltage
so that the workpiece is electrostatically clamped in a fixed position on said clamping
surface by electrostatic force between the workpiece and said platen sections, said
electrostatic clamping apparatus being operable to clamp the workpiece to said clamping
surface in vacuum.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the appealed
claims are:
Klass et al. (Klass) 3,197,682 Jul. 27, 1965
Briglia 4,184,188 Jan. 15, 1980
Lewin 4,554,611 Nov. 19, 1985
Claims 1, 2, 7-14, 19-22, and 61-66 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over Klass. Claims 3 and 15 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
2
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