Appeal 2006-1662
Application 10/453,119
The Examiner responds that Sakemi is only applied for his teaching of
using notches to facilitate the connection/alignment between two conductors
(Answer 11-12). The Examiner expounds that the notch 7 facilitates the
connection between lead 3 of the connector main body 2 and the terminal 6
of the printed circuit board 5 without causing dislocation of the lead 3 from
the terminal 6 in the lateral direction before and during the soldering step
(Sakemi Figure 1).
We agree with the Examiner.
Machado teaches that each end (i.e., shank 25 and 28) of the wire lead
20 is placed on its corresponding bond pad (i.e., 32 or 42) and attached
thereto by soldering (Machado, col. 6, ll. 15-17, col. 7, ll. 14-18). Likewise,
Sakemi teaches that the lead 3 is placed into and cooperates with the slit
(i.e., notch) 7 to provide a firmly coupled arrangement that prevents lateral
dislocation of the lead 3 prior to and during soldering (Sakemi, col. 4, ll. 54-
64). Sakemi’s teaching would have motivated one of ordinary skill in the art
to combine slits (i.e., notches) 7 with the pads 32, 42 on Machado’s printed
wiring board 30 (i.e., reinforcement plate) and ceramic substrate card 40
(i.e., fragile substrate) to facilitate aligning the wire leads 20 of the
connector 10 to prevent lateral dislocation of the leads during soldering.
Moreover, as we aforenoted, both Sakemi and Machado disclose
aligning and placing leads on bond pads prior to soldering. The similarity of
Sakemi’s and Machado’s soldering technique indicates that placing
Sakemi’s slits (i.e., notches) 7 in the pads 32, 42 of Machado would
reasonably be expected to successfully hold the leads 20 in place during
soldering.
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