Appeal No. 1999-0878
Application 08/182,093
420 (CCPA 1970); accord In re Pardo, 684 F.2d 912, 917,
214 USPQ 673, 677 (CCPA 1982). The fabrication of
semiconductor devices is the kind of complex technology that
does not lend itself to Official Notice. Neither we nor our
reviewing court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal
Circuit, have any way of reviewing the fact asserted by the
Examiner. Even if insulating layers were well known in the
semiconductor art, the Examiner provides no explanation of why
one skilled in the art would have been motivated to use such
insulating layers in Lee. The purpose of the connector
plate 80 in Lee is to provide a flexible coupling between the
chip contacts and the appropriate plate or signal lead
(col. 6, lines 9-22), and forming the connector plate 80
directly on the surface of the chip 18, as proposed by the
Examiner, would be directly contrary to this purpose.
Accordingly, the Examiner has failed to establish a prima
facie case of obviousness of the claimed insulating layer
directly coating a surface of the chip.
Furthermore, the Examiner failed to address in the final
rejection, and, thus, failed to establish a prima facie case
of obviousness of, the limitation of the metallized contact
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