Appeal No. 2000-0713
Application 08/864,726
The prior art relied upon by the examiner is:
Prud'Homme 4,820,446 Apr. 11, 1989
Claims 16-20 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as
anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. § 103
as obvious over the teachings of Prud'Homme.
We reverse.
BACKGROUND
Effective heat removal is critical to ensure both
performance and reliability of an integrated circuit.
Specification, page 2, lines 10-16. One of the commonly used
heat removal devices is a heat sink which may be incorporated
during fabrication of the package. Id. at lines 16-21. To
avoid problems which may occur when the heat sink is attached
directly to the integrated circuit package (e.g., uneven
cooling causing stress within the package) heat sinks are
typically attached to integrated circuit packages using an
adhesive which has relatively good thermal conductivity.
Specification, page 2, lines 16-31. However, adhesives have
the drawback that their thermal conductivity is significantly
low in comparison with metals. Specification, page 2, lines
31-32. Thus, the volume of adhesive used to secure the heat
sink to the integrated circuit package should be no more than
the minimum amount required to create a robust bond, so that
the length of thermal path through the bond may be minimized.
Specification, page 3, lines 24-29.
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