Appeal No. 2005-0293
Application No. 09/727,139
dimensions...” (Appeal brief filed on Jun. 3, 2003, paper 12,
page 3.) Further details of this appealed subject matter are
recited in representative claim 1, the sole independent claim on
appeal, reproduced below:
1. A method of fabricating a line comprising:
(a) providing a substrate having a hard mask
material on the substrate;
(b) patterning the hard mask material to provide
a line segment, the line segment having a
first dimension measured across the line
segment;
(c) reacting a surface layer of the line segment
by vapor phase etching to form a layer of a
reaction product on sidewalls of the line
segment;
(d) removing the reaction product without
attacking the remaining portion of the line
segment and without attacking the substrate
to form the line segment with a dimension
across the line segment that is smaller than
the first dimension.
The examiner relies on the following prior art references
as evidence of unpatentability:
Jeng et al. 5,282,925 Feb. 01, 1994
(Jeng)
Then et al. 5,569,355 Oct. 29, 1996
(Then)
Ramachandran et al. 5,980,770 Nov. 09, 1999
(Ramachandran)
2
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