Appeal No. 1997-0027
Application No. 08/117,443
all of the claims pending in the application.
The subject matter on appeal is directed to a process and
an apparatus for plasma processing a workpiece. Appellant has
grouped the claims on appeal as follows(Brief, page 6):
Group I - Claims 9 through 15 (process claims); and
Group II - Claims 23 through 37 (apparatus claims).
Therefore, for purposes of this appeal, we will limit our
discussion to the propriety of the examiner’s rejections of
claims 9 and 23 in accordance with 37 CFR § 1.192(c)(7) and
(c)(8)(iv) (1995). Claims 9 and 23 are reproduced below:
9. A method of plasma processing a workpiece in a vacuum
chamber having a cathode, comprising
evacuating said chamber,
elevating said cathode to a process initiation voltage
relative to said chamber while said chamber is evacuated, said
process initiation voltage being insufficient to fully ignite
or maintain a plasma within said chamber,
flowing a gas into said chamber while maintaining said
cathode at said process initiation voltage, and thereafter
applying electrical power to said cathode to elevate said
cathode to a processing voltage greater than said process
initiation voltage to fully ignite a plasma from said gas
within said chamber and cause electrical current to flow
through said plasma,
maintaining said cathode at said processing voltage to
maintain ignition of a plasma in said chamber while processing
said workpiece within said chamber.
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