Appeal No. 1998-1746
Application No. 08/427,462
process and, more particularly, to a method of fabricating
micro-tip structures on a surface. According to appellants'
specification (page 3), the terms "micro-tip" and "cone" are
used interchangeably. Claim 1, the sole independent claim, is
illustrative of appellants' method:
1. A method of fabricating micro-tips, said method
comprising the steps of:
providing a substrate;
depositing a first material on said substrate;
producing irregularities across at least a selected
area on a surface of said deposited first material to
provide increased uniformity of sites for forming
said micro-tips;
sputtering a second material onto said surface of
said first material; and
etching said first material.
The examiner relies upon the following references as
evidence of obviousness:
Okino et al. (Okino) 4,952,272 Aug. 28,
1990 Kobori et al. (Kobori) 5,162,704 Nov.
10, 1992
Angell et al. (Angell) 5,288,367 Feb. 22,
1994
Kumar 5,399,238 Mar. 21,
1995
Wehner et al., "Cone Formation on Metal Targets during
Sputtering," 42 Journal Of Applied Physics, no. 3, 1145-49
2
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