Appeal No. 96-3893 Application 08/063,302 The tape-contacting front surface of each ferrite core half includes a V-shaped channel 5 containing a magnetic metal material 3 having a high-saturation magnetization characteristic (col. 5, lines 26-33). The magnetic metal material (which is a soft magnetic material) can be a magnetic alloy, such as an amorphous alloy, Sendust, and permalloy, and can be formed in the channel by sputtering or deposition (col. 5, lines 37-42). 3 The examiner contends the artisan would have been motivated for the following reasons to replace Terada's ferrite blocks 9 with films of soft ferrite magnetic material (Answer at 4-5): It was notoriously old and well known in the art that a ferrite material may be a soft magnetic material, as evidenced by Ihara. Soft magnetic materials were utilized for their advantageous large saturation flux densities. . . . Soft magnetic materials lent themselves favorably to formation as films by conventional film forming techniques and magnetic thin films were recognized in the art as substitutes for magnetic block members, especially in view of the continued trend in the art towards smaller dimensions for both magnetic heads utilized in disk devices and magnetic heads utilized in tape devices. Also, the fact that soft magnetic materials utilized as films in the art had superior characteristics to common core block materials 3The examiner initially incorrectly characterized Ihara as teaching that the soft magnetic ferrite material can be formed by sputtering or deposition (final Office action at p. 3), which characterization he withdrew in the Examiner's Answer (at p. 10, para. C). -6-Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007