Appeal No. 1997-3390
Application No. 08/354,384
1976) (considering the problem to be solved in a determination
of obviousness). The Federal Circuit reasons in Para-Ordnance
Mfg. Inc. v. SGS Importers Int’l Inc., 73 F.3d 1085, 1088-89,
37 USPQ2d 1237, 1239-40 (Fed. Cir. 1995), cert. denied, 519
U.S. 822 (1996), that for the determination of obviousness,
the court must answer whether one of ordinary skill in the art
who sets out to solve the problem and who had before him in
his workshop the prior art, would have been reasonably
expected to use the solution that is claimed by the
Appellants.
We find that Santangelo is concerned with forming a metal
layer on the back surface of a semiconductor substrate for
improved adhesion to a heat sink as well as low contact
resistance. Santangelo specifically teaches in column 2,
lines 33 through 63 that an ion implantation step provides the
low resistance contact as the deposition of one or more metal
layers allow the back surface of the semiconductor substrate
be soldered to a metal substrate. We further find that
Santangelo refers generally to "depositing" metal layers and
does not specify a particular deposition method such as
Appellants’ flame spraying method. Turning to Merz, we find
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