Appeal No. 1997-1319
Application 08/290,227
sites in the starting film” and appellants are ignoring the
clear teachings of the reference [answer, page 2]. In our
view, it is the examiner who has misconstrued the teachings of
Guckel.
Guckel teaches that the substrate is cleaned prior to
deposition of a polysilicon film to avoid nucleation sites on
the substrate which could be caused by any type of
contamination on the substrate. Thus, Guckel is not avoiding
nucleation sites within the thin film material, but only
artificially induced nucleation sites on the substrate caused
by contaminants. Independent claims 26 and 27 both recite
that the amorphous film itself is substantially free of nuclei
at the time it is deposited. The polysilicon of Guckel is a
crystallized material which will have natural nucleation sites
at the borders of the crystals. Thus, the examiner’s
fundamental position that Guckel teaches depositing a film
free of nucleation sites is simply not supported by the
disclosure of Guckel. In fact, the Guckel polysilicon has
many nucleation sites which results in a film having many
small grain crystals rather than the large grain crystals as
recited in claims 26 and 27.
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