Appeal No. 95-3936
Application 08/135,324
that:
After exposure, the wafer is maintained in an inert
medium to ensure that the latent image remains
stable.
Lines 10 through 15 of page 5 inform us that:
In one embodiment, the inert medium can be nitrogen
gas. In another embodiment, the wafer can be
maintained in water. In another embodiment, the
wafer can be maintained in nitrogen during the
exposure of the wafer. Finally, the nitrogen or
other inert atmospheric conditions can also be
employed to regenerate the surface of the latent
image after it has been subjected to the normal
clean room ambient.
At page 10, line 5 through page 11, line 9,
appellants discuss several embodiments of their invention.
Specifically, after a series of conventional, prior art
processing steps but before post exposure baking appellants
disclose that:
the water cassette used to hold the
wafers during lithography process 100
could be modified to provide an inert
gas ambient for the wafers after
exposure. (page 5, lines 5 through 8)
It is also disclosed that:
In the currently preferred embodiment
the wafer ambient is the inert gas
nitrogen. (page 5, lines 10 and 11)
As an alternative, the wafers may be stored in water rather
than an inert gas (page 5, lines 14 and 15). Or, the wafer
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