Appeal No. 1998-2422
Application 08/488,380
not allow for movement of the lithographic tool and the wafer
relative to one another (Br4). It is argued that the
semiconductor membrane technology of the present invention
allows intimate contact under very light pressure (Br4-5).
That is (RBr2):
The present inventor pioneered and is alone in the
inorganic dielectric membrane art. The use of this
membrane art in combination with the claimed
electromagnetic sensing method to achieve lithographic
alignment is necessarily novel. The apparatus claims are
novel in the material that the apparatus is fabricated
from (semiconductor membrane), it is novel in the intent
of the application (lithography), it is novel in the use
of sensing electronics integrated as part of the
membrane, and it is novel in the way it achieves
mechanical proximity to the surface of the substrate (low
stress flexible membrane).
It is argued, with respect to the method claims, that a
membrane lithographic fabrication tool permits intimate
contact to be achieved under very slight pressure (RBr2). The
Examiner does not respond to these arguments about the novelty
of the membrane lithographic fabrication tool, but only
addresses the obviousness of applying the alignment system of
Keogh to a conventional lithographic fabrication tool (EA4).
The argument that the combination of a novel material
(semiconductor membrane) with the sensing method is novel is
persuasive. The preamble of method claim 77 recites a
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