Appeal No. 1999-2335
Application No. 08/449,809
the other independent claims also contain a limitation which
focuses on adjacent substrates being so positioned and
oriented as to allow heat to be radiated between their facing
surfaces. The claims stand rejected by the examiner as being
unpatentable over Turner in view of Yamabe.
Turner discloses a substrate processing system that
includes a plurality of heating chambers which are maintained
at a desired temperature by heaters located in the chamber
walls. Within each chamber are a plurality of vertically
spaced substrate support shelves, each having a pair of
dielectric mounts upon which the substrates to be treated are
placed in spaced relationship from the shelves. In a
continuous process, a loading system successively places
unheated individual substrates onto the shelves and then
removes them when they have been heated to the desired
temperature. The shelves are made of heat conductive material
and are of solid construction, therefore blocking direct
radiation of heat between the faces of adjacent substrates.
Once heated to operating temperature by the heaters in the
walls of the chamber, the shelves continuously radiate heat to
the faces of adjacent substrates so that the substrates are
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