Appeal No. 2004-0085
Application No. 09/876,447
onto the top surface of the polishing pad while the pad and wafer
are being rotated. This appealed subject matter is adequately
illustrated by independent claim 1 which reads as follows:
1. A method for in-situ cleaning a pad and a wafer during
chemical mechanical polishing comprising the steps of:
rotating a wafer and a polishing pad in opposite directions;
conducting a chemical mechanical polishing process on a
wafer surface;
stopping the dispensing of a slurry solution onto a top
surface of said polishing pad;
mixing an acid-containing solution from water and an acid
selected from the group consisting of citric acid, HCOOH,
CH3COOH, HNO3, H2SO4 and HF;
dispensing said acid-containing solution onto said top
surface of said polishing pad while said wafer and said pad are
being rotated.
The references relied on by the examiner are:
Koos et al. (Koos) 5,934,980 Aug. 10, 1999
Laursen et al. (Laursen) 6,387,188 B1 May 14, 2002
(filed Mar. 3, 1999)
Claims 1, 3-7 and 9-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §102(b)
as being anticipated by Koos.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103(a) as being
unpatentable over Koos in view of Laursen.
We refer to the Brief and to the Answer and final Office
action (Paper No. 4) for a complete exposition of the opposing
viewpoints expressed by the appellants and by the examiner
concerning the above noted rejections.
2
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007