Appeal No. 95-3438
Application No. 08/033,656
Morosanu and Schuegraf as evidence that in chemical vapor
deposition methods “increasing the pressure results in higher
deposition rates”. See the answer, page 5. At the same time,
the examiner also admits that it is well known in the art that
decreasing the pressure in a chemical vapor deposition method
results in “increased thickness uniformity” (answer, page 5).
Thus, the examiner implicitly acknowledges that an increase
in the operating pressure in a chemical vapor deposition
method would have been expected to have an adverse effect on
the film thickness uniformity of the deposited coating.
Nevertheless, the examiner contends that when an increased
deposition rate is critical to a specific application for
producing a specifically desired final product, it would have
been obvious to increase the process pressure to achieve a
higher deposition rate. We
find the examiner’s approach above to be problematical because
the relied upon prior art references all relate to the field
of semiconductor technology wherein film thickness uniformity
is an essential and critical feature of the deposited silicon
nitride coatings. Moreover, the examiner has pointed to no
specific example involving a desired product in which
5
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007