Appeal No. 1999-1133
Application No. 08/766,199
Reference is made to the briefs and answer for the respective positions of appellants and the
examiner.
OPINION
We reverse.
At the outset, we note that the examiner has applied Ohtsuka as an anticipatory reference against
independent claim 5 and has pointed out where the various claimed elements are taught. The examiner
identifies the step of cleaning the sidewalls and exposed metal bottom with a nitrogen-containing plasma
as inherently being performed by Ohtsuka since the reference employs a nitrogen-containing plasma,
with table 1 at column 4 of the reference disclosing similar ranges and conditions for the plasma as are
recited in appellants’ specification at page 12.
Appellants’ only response to the examiner’s identification of the cleaning step in the reference, as
articulated in both the principal brief and the reply brief filed February 3, 1999, is that “No such step is
found or even suggested in Ohtsuka” [principal brief-page 3] and that Ohtsuka “uses a nitrogen plasma
for the purpose of suppressing the generation of AlF (OH) as noted in the paragraph bridging
m 3-m
columns 5 and 6. No mention is made of cleaning and clearly no mention is made of cleaning the via
-3-
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