Appeal No. 96-1805
Application 08/200,432
a gas ambient as an alternative to the high vacuum is clearly
envisioned by Black” (emphasis added). The appellants also
support this view (Brief, page 8).
Goesele has been cited by the examiner as teaching that the
bonding process can successfully be conducted by pressing the
wafers together at one spot, from which a bonding wave proceeds
(column 3, lines 34 through 36).
We first shall consider the limitation in claims 1 and 13 of
setting a pressure of gas below atmospheric pressure between the
first and second wafers "before starting a sticking of said
wafers." The examiner's position is that Hoshi would have taught
one of ordinary skill in the art to further modify the bonding
systems described in the admitted prior art by performing them in
a chamber in which the pressure is below atmospheric at the
required point in the method. He begins his analysis by
asserting that
no bonding of the wafers [in Hoshi] is initiated by
merely contacting the surfaces . . . as depicted in
Figure 3D because the wafers are still held apart by
the vacuum pressure of the vacuum chucks" (Answer,
sentence bridging pages 8 and 9).
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