Appeal 2006-3235
Reexamination Control No. 90/006,696
1 a wide variety of applications.” Hiatt at 130, 2d para. These applications
2 include making thermal “color maps” of the surfaces of monolithic
3 integrated circuits. Id. at 130, 3d para.
4 16. Under the heading “An Improved Method,” Hiatt explains that his
5 improved method employs a polarizing microscope and that heating a region
6 of a cholesteric liquid crystal layer to a temperature above its cholesteric-
7 isotropic phase transition temperature will cause that region to appear as a
8 “black spot.” Id. at 130, 5th para. The term “black spot” also appears at
9 page 131, paragraph 6, and in the caption for Figure 7 (at 132).
10 17. The last paragraph under “Procedure” explains that “the method
11 has the potential to make accurate junction-to-case thermal resistance
12 measurements on semiconductors.” Hiatt at 131, 1st col. There is no
13 indication that this type of measurement is to be performed on a failed or
14 defective device.
15 18. Hiatt discloses two examples of failed integrated circuits on the
16 with the disclosed hot spot detection method was used: (a) a short circuit in a
17 CMOS integrated circuit, id. at 131, and (b) a CMOS latch-up mechanism.
18 Id. at 131. Hiatt concludes by stating that the method “has been used
19 extensively to find the location of short circuits in integrated circuits, and it
20 is a powerful tool for studying CMOS latch-up mechanisms” Id. at 133.
21 Fleuren (Br. Ex. I; Reexam. Ex. 1)
22 19. The title of the Flueren article is “A Very Sensitive, Simple,
23 Analysis Technique Using Nematic Liquid Crystals.” Reexam. Ex. 1.25
25 The title is missing from the copy in evidence as Br. Ex. I.
17
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