Appeal No. 1999-2220 Page 4
Application No. 08/662,930
Iwai is directed to an apparatus for processing
substrates. The examiner focuses upon the embodiment shown in
Figure 11 as supporting the conclusion that this reference is
anticipatory of claim 1. However, we cannot agree. Our
reasons follow.
Although the term “processing” is not defined in the
appellant’s specification, it is our opinion that one of
ordinary skill in the art would understand this term to mean
subjecting a substrate to treatment or acting upon it so as to
alter it in some manner, such as exposing it to gas or other
materials and/or conditions, a conclusion that is confirmed in
the opening paragraphs of Iwai. Looking to Figure 11 of Iwai,
which the examiner has focused upon in the rejection, only
element 101 is described as a “processing” chamber (column 15,
line 31). Only one such chamber is disclosed and therefore,
insofar as its explicit teachings are concerned, on its face,
Iwai clearly does not anticipate claim 1, which requires that
there be at least two processing chambers. However, the
examiner has taken the position that “vessel storage stage” 116
constitutes a plurality of “chambers” which qualify as
processing chambers on the basis that “processes such as
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