Appeal No. 1997-3314
Application 08/266,783
between the copper layer and the polyimide substrate (col. 2,
lines 65-67) would have led one of ordinary skill in the art
to also use chromium layer thicknesses inside or outside the
preferred range, including thicknesses in the range of about 5
to about 20D, as needed to obtain suitable copper/polyimide
adhesion.
Accordingly, we affirm the rejection of claim 11.
Claim 13
Appellants’ claim 13 recites that the temperature of the
polyimide substrate during the sputtering is about 0EC ± 5EC.
The examiner argues that it would have been obvious to
one of ordinary skill in the art to vary the sputtering
temperature such that an optimum can be obtained to achieve
maximum adhesion (answer, page 6). The examiner, however,
does not explain why Clabes’ teaching that the low energy
irradiation can occur at room temperature or higher (col. 5,
lines 18-19) would have indicated, to one of ordinary skill in
the art, that temperatures as low as about 5EC would be
suitable. Consequently, we conclude that the examiner has not
established a prima facie case of obviousness of the process
8
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007