Appeal No. 1997-1006
Application 08/184,718
The CVD-deposited SiC is machined and polished and then coated
with magnetic recording media (col. 3, lines 48-56).
Pickering discloses (col. 4, lines 47-52): "Even though the
polished surface may be subsequently coated with several coats
of material, including magnetic recording media, an overcoat
and optional other layers, any surface irregularities in the
polished surface tend to be imparted to the subsequent layers,
often in exaggerated form."
Appellants argue "that the Pickering reference does not
enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make a disk
substrate with a surface roughness of less than 4 Å (claims 9,
13, and 21), much less a disk substrate having a surface
roughness of less than 3 Å (claims 10, 14, and 22) or 2 Å
(claims 11, 15, and 23)" (Br3). Appellants argue that
Pickering's roughnesses were measured using a Talystep
mechanical profiler, while Appellants' roughnesses were
measured using an atomic force microscope (AFM) and that
Pickering acknowledges that the roughnesses would be larger
when measured on an AFM. Appellants refer to the article
Precision metrology for studying optical surfaces by J.M.
Bennett et al., Optics & Photonics News, May 1991, pp. 14-18,
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