Appeal No. 2000-0037
Application 08/627,631
using nitrogen as a carrier gas. Thereafter, the method is
described as one "comprising" the three steps of (1) flowing
reactant gases "containing" silicon, oxygen and a "first dopant"
into a reaction chamber to form a dielectric film "at
substantially said identical processing condition", (2) using
helium as the carrier gas "for at least a portion of said process
gas in the system" and (3) processing more substrates in the
system between cleanings than would be processed in "a process
under substantially said identical processing conditions" but
using nitrogen as carrier gas.
In the first instance, it strikes us that appellants are
attempting to claim less a method but more the result or
advantage of a method. But the method claimed is described in
terms of another process without regard to the various reaction
parameters which define that process. The claim language "under
substantially identical processing conditions" is, apparently, a
reference to the conditions utilized in the other process which
uses nitrogen as a carrier gas to which appellants compare the
results allegedly obtained by their process. The language "under
substantially identical processing conditions" is virtually
meaningless where the type of process and the nature of the
conditions to which appellants' process is compared are not
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