Appeal No. 2003-0212 Page 8
Application No. 09/089,053
of the disk, the slider will be slightly closer to the disk at
the inner portion than at the outer portion based on air flow.
The examiner asserts that the claimed “threshold height varying”
limitation is an inherent feature of a flying slider due to the
dynamics of a slider/disk interface [answer, pages 5-6].
We will not sustain the rejection of claims 7-12.
Although the examiner is correct that the fly height of a
transducer will inherently change based on its radial location
over the disk, this property is not related to the claimed
circuit for determining a threshold height which varies as
claimed. Meyer assumes that the fly height is substantially
constant over the disk surface. Thus, Meyer is not interested in
this inherent fly height property. Although we determined above
that Meyer does determine a threshold height when testing the
transducers for temperature variation, this determination does
not assume any change in threshold height over the disk surface.
The examiner has not pointed to any teaching within Meyer which
would have suggested to the artisan that the threshold height
should vary as claimed.
In summary, we have sustained the examiner’s rejection of
claims 1-6, but we have not sustained the examiner’s rejection of
claims 7-12. Therefore, the decision of the examiner rejecting
claims 1-12 is affirmed-in-part.
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