Appeal No. 97-4091
Application 08/382,701
The Rejections on Appeal
Claims 1-15 stand finally rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
being unpatentable over Yonezawa and Yamazaki. The appellants
have grouped all claims 1-15 together for argument purposes in
this appeal. (Br. at 3).
The Invention
This invention is directed to the use of an amorphous
silicon carbide layer as a diffusion barrier in an integrated
circuit or a wiring board. According to the specification (at 1,
lines 3-6), the function of the amorphous silicon carbide layer
is to stop the migration of metal atoms between conductors
interconnecting an electrical circuit.
Independent claims 1 and 11 are drawn to an integrated
circuit and independent claim 15 is drawn to a wiring board. All
other claims depend directly or indirectly from either claim 1 or
claim 11.
Claims 1 and 11 both require (1) a circuit subassembly
comprising a semiconductor substrate having solid state device
regions; (2) metal wiring deposed on the surface of the
semiconductor substrate and interconnecting the solid state
2
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