Appeal No. 95-1487
Application 07/813,387
(European Patent Application)
Claims 1, 2 and 4-16 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
unpatentable over Kawabata in view of Nakagawa. We reverse this 2
rejection for reasons which follow.
OPINION
The examiner has made the finding that Kawabata discloses a
phase shift mask and a method of preparing this mask which
includes (a) patterning a light shielding opaque layer (e.g.,
chrome) on a transparent substrate; (b) depositing on the entire
surface an etch stop layer of aluminum oxide (Al O );
2 3
(c) depositing a phase shift layer of silicon dioxide on the
entire surface to a desired thickness; and (d) then depositing
and patterning a resist layer with subsequent etching of the
silicon dioxide layer to form the 90 phase shifter (see o
Kawabata, page 15, lines 8-20, Figures 45A-E, and the main
answer, page 3). The examiner states that the "construction of
2A new ground of rejection was made in the main examiner’s
answer (page 4), rejecting claims 1, 2 and 4-16 under § 103 as
unpatentable over Kim et al. (U.S. Patent No. 4,767,724) in view
of Smoot et al. (U.S. Patent No. 5,114,813). Appellants
submitted a reply brief dated Dec. 7, 1994 (Paper No. 22) in
response to the new ground of rejection. The examiner responded
with a supplemental examiner’s answer dated Dec. 30, 1994 (Paper
No. 23). However, according to the letter dated April 8, 1997
(Paper No. 25), the new ground of rejection has been withdrawn.
Accordingly, the only rejection on appeal before this merits
panel is the rejection of claims 1,2 and 4-16 under § 103 over
Kawabata in view of Nakagawa.
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