Appeal No. 1997-3360
Application No. 08/119,785
(column 1, line 45 to column 2, line 42 of Basi ‘954; column
1, line 47 to column 2, line 46 of Basi ‘457).
Cleveland teaches that the wafer is washed in a warm
ultrasonically agitated aqueous detergent solution to remove
substantially all physical contaminants, such as dust and
other discrete particles, which are not attached to the
surface by direct chemical bonds (column 1, lines 49-54).
According to Cleveland, this washing step “facilitates the
subsequent removal of chemically bound contaminants” (emphasis
added; column 1, lines 54-56). Cleveland further teaches that
the removal of chemically bound contaminants involves an
oxidizing step which is “particularly efficacious for removing
chemisorbed hydrophobic contaminants” (emphasis added; column
1, lines 57-70).
Given these teachings in the prior art, one of ordinary
skill in the art might have arrived at a method in which the
wafer is washed with ultrasonically agitated aqueous detergent
solution, as shown in Cleveland, before the oxidizing and
dilute NH OH rinsing steps described in Basi ‘954 or Basi
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‘457. Such a method, however, is not the invention recited in
the appealed claims. Rather than suggesting the present
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