Appeal No. 1996-2086
Application 08/255,588
requires is that the gettering material is heated to a temperature higher than the melting
point of the gettering material. As discussed above, Fuller provides such a disclosure for
tin and zinc gettering materials.
Rejection of claim 8
Fuller’s disclosed temperature range of 450-900EC for a germanium substrate
includes temperatures which are within 150EC of the melting points of antimony (631EC)
and silver (962EC). Fuller, however, does not disclose using these metals at heating
temperatures which are within 150EC of their melting points. For appellant’s claimed
invention to be anticipated, the reference must lead one of ordinary skill in the art to a
method which falls within the scope of the claim “without any need for picking, choosing,
and combining various disclosures not directly related to each other by the teachings of the
cited reference.” In re Arkley, 455 F.2d 586, 587, 172 USPQ 524, 526 (CCPA 1972).
To arrive at appellant’s invention, such a selection, i.e., choice of antimony or silver in
combination with a heating temperature within 150EC of their melting points, is required. I
therefore would reverse the rejection of claim 8 under
35 U.S.C. § 102(b).
However, Fuller’s teaching that the heating temperature for a germanium substrate
can be 450-900EC (col. 3, lines 1-2) would have fairly suggested, to one of ordinary skill in
the art, use of any of these temperatures with any of the disclosed metals, including
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