Appeal No. 2003-1367
Application No. 09/640,237
The examiner's decision is affirmed-in-part.
Other Issues
In the event of further prosecution of the appealed claims before the examiner, the
examiner should consider the following issues. Nakamura, Fig. 4, shows a semiconductor
substrate 1 with an active region 3; a planar first barrier layer 8; a first conductive plug 10 filling
a first opening that reaches the active area (not labeled, opposite active area 3); a "wiring pad"
(not labeled, but positioned between plug 10 and plug 13 in the same layer as first wiring layer
11, see col. 9, ll. 59-60) that only covers a single contact plug 10; a second planarized barrier
layer 12 over the first barrier layer 8; and a second conductive plug 13 filling a second opening
that reaches the "wiring pad." The examiner finds (Answer, page 10) that Nakamura’s element
11 corresponds to and meets the claimed “contact land” limitation. Insofar as the examiner is
referring to Nakamura’s “wiring pad,” which is situated between plugs 10 and 13 in Fig. 16, we
discern no error in this particular finding. Thus, it appears that Nakamura would apply to at least
appealed claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. § 102(e).
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