Appeal No. 1997-3314
Application 08/266,783
irradiation can occur at room temperature or at elevated
substrate temperatures (col. 5, lines 18-19) and, therefore,
indicates that the simultaneous irradiation and metal
deposition can take place at a temperature as low as room
temperature.
In view of the above-discussed prior art, we conclude
that the invention recited in appellants’ claim 1 would have
been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art
at the time of appellants’ invention.
Appellants argue that Sallo’s substrate naturally heats
up during the sputtering of the chromium onto the substrate
because sputtering is a high energy process (brief, page 4).
This argument is not persuasive in view of the indication by
Clabes, as discussed above, that the sputtering can take place
at room temperature. The evidence of record does not indicate
that the high energy of the chromium particles bombarding the
substrate would cause the substrate temperature to increase
from room temperature to more than appellants’ upper
temperature limit of about 60EC. Appellants have provided
mere attorney argument to that effect, and such argument
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