Appeal No. 1999-2712 Page 5
Application No. 08/165,082
See id..; In re Hedges, 783 F.2d 1038, 1039, 228 USPQ 685, 686 (Fed. Cir. 1986); In re
Piasecki, 745 F.2d 1468, 1472, 223 USPQ 785, 788 (Fed. Cir. 1984); and In re Rinehart, 531
F.2d 1048, 1052, 189 USPQ 143, 147 (CCPA 1976).
We consider first the rejection of claim 1, the only independent claim in the application, based
on the teachings of Koyama and Brandmayr. The examiner asserts (answer, page 3) that Koyama
teaches a stacked capacitor intended for use in an integrated circuit wherein a layer of BST is
interposed between a pair of electrodes. Koyama discloses the thickness of the BST layer to be 70 nm
- 200 nm. The examiner notes that id., “No micrograph of barium strontium titanate is shown, however,
nor is there any explicit discussion of the grain size in the text of the article.” To make up for this
deficiency in Koyama, the examiner turns to Brandmayr for a teaching of a dielectric material formed
of BST, and having a grain size less than 0.1 micron (100 nanometers). As stated by the examiner,
Brandmayr teaches (col. 2, lines 1-24) the advantages of increased dielectric constant, increased
dielectric strength and decreased porosity.
We note that appellants’ specification (page 1) discloses that BST was known to be useful in
making integrated circuit thin film capacitors having high dielectric constants, and refers to Koyama as
an example of an integrated circuit thin film capacitor utilizing BST as a dielectric material. The
specification goes on to state id., that “conventional processes, while useful in conventional silicon
technology, when used in combination with capacitors that use metal oxides, such as BST, as the
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