Appeal No. 1996-0073
Application 08/278,688
a) providing a polycrystalline diamond film of thickness greater than t that
comprises relatively fine-grained diamond material adjacent to a first major surface of the
diamond film, and relatively coarse-grained diamond material adjacent to a second major
surface of the diamond film; and, prior to mounting of the heat generating means on the
diamond film,
b) removing a quantity of diamond material from the diamond film such that the
diamond film of thickness t results, at least a first part of the removed material being
relatively fine-grained diamond material adjacent to the first major surface.
The sole issue in this appeal is whether claims 1-10 were properly rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over UK patent application GB 2,061,904 A.1
Discussion
A. Claim 1
Claim 1 is directed to a method of making an article comprising a polycrystalline
diamond film whereby a quantity of diamond is removed from a free major surface of the
film. The removal step includes contacting at least a portion of the free major surface of
the polycrystalline diamond film with metal selected from the group consisting of Fe, Ni, Mn
and Ti by (1) depositing a layer of the metal on at least a portion the free major surface, (2)
urging a body of the metal against the free major surface, OR (3) contacting the free major
surface with a powder of the metal. Thereafter, the metal-contacted diamond film is
1UK patent application GB 2,061,904 A issued May 20, 1981 (hereinafter "GB
'904A").
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