Appeal No. 1998-2582
Application No. 08/669,794
that the examiner has failed to establish a prima facie case
of obviousness.Accordingly, we shall reverse the sole rejection
at issue essentially for the reasons discussed in appellant’s
brief.
Hirofuji relates to a method for purifying water to be
used in a process for manufacturing semiconductor devices. In
Hirofuji, water is passed in sequence through a deaerator, an
oxidation device, an ion eliminating device and a particle
eliminating device.
Appellant acknowledges that it was a well known problem
in the semiconductor field that DI water undesirably etches
aluminum and aluminum alloys. Appellant also acknowledges
that it was common practice to subject DI water to injection
of air to remove dissolved carbon dioxide. Apparently,
appellant was the first to recognize that the problematic
etching of aluminum caused by DI water was not due to the DI
water itself but rather to the DO content of the DI water.
While Hirofuji (col. 1, ll. 25-29) suggests that
reduction of DO content may be desirable, this suggestion does
not arise in the particular context of a purification process
which involves an air injection step, as recited in the
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