Appeal No. 1997-3489
Application No. 08/430,467
Claim 1 is illustrative of the claimed invention, and it
reads as follows:
1. A method for inspecting a silicon substrate for
aluminum spiking comprising:
providing a silicon substrate having an aluminum
containing metallization layer formed on a
surface of the silicon substrate;
etching the aluminum containing metallization
layer completely from the surface of the silicon
substrate;
etching the surface of the silicon substrate
through contacting the surface of the silicon
substrate with
a buffered aqueous etchant solution comprising
about 1.5 to about 2 parts by volume 10:1 buffered
oxide etchant and about 1 part by volume 98%
acetic acid;
the etching of the surface of the silicon substrate
being undertaken until the surface of the silicon
substrate is gray in color; and
inspecting the surface of the silicon
substrate.
The references relied on by the examiner are:
Payne et al. (Payne) 4,120,744 Oct. 17,
1978
Lowrey et al (Lowrey) 4,999,160 Mar. 12,
1991
Wolf et al. (Wolf), “Silicon Processing for the VLSI Era,
Volume 1: Process Technology,” Lattice Press, 1986, pages 532,
589 and 590 (hereinafter Wolf ‘86).
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