Appeal No. 1997-4423
Application No. 08/355,009
a plurality of shutters; and
a plurality of operating members for independently
controlling respective positions of said plurality
of shutters from outside the processing chamber.
It is the examiner’s view that the use of shutters to change
the areas of radiation ports is taught by Doehler and
controlling shutters from outside an operating chamber by
Bloom and Kenichi, and that it would have been obvious to one
of ordinary skill in the art to modify the apparatus disclosed
in the admitted prior art by adding such structure.
Doehler is directed to a microwave energy apparatus the
purpose of which is to deposit plasma uniformly over an area
in a vessel. It is equipped with a microwave applicator means
40 that comprises in the embodiment shown in Figure 2 a
plurality of apertures through which the microwave energy
passes. According to this reference, the distribution of the
microwave energy can be controlled by blocking and unblocking
the apertures (column 8, lines 31-34) or by partially
unblocking them (column 8, line 44) by means of shutters.
Further in this regard, Figure 3 shows another embodiment in
which a single shutter is used to vary the size of the an
aperture. In view of these teachings, it is our opinion that
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