Appeal No. 2000-1371
Application No. 08/867,810
BACKGROUND
The appellant's invention relates to a nozzle plate and a manufacturing process
thereof. An understanding of the invention can be derived from a reading of exemplary
claim 1, which is reproduced below.
1. A nozzle plate for an ink jet head provided with nozzle orifices
though which ink is to be ejected,
wherein the nozzle orifices are formed in the nozzle plate by an
excimer laser device with a working lens which has a numerical aperture
(NA) set to 0.13 or more and 0.35 or less,
wherein the range of the numerical aperture is determined based
on size of a round portion produced around the nozzle orifice and a focal
depth of an optical system used in the excimer laser device,
and wherein the value 0.13 is selected so that an amount of the
round portion becomes lower than a predetermined amount, and the
value 0.35 is selected so that the nozzle plate and the working lens are
easily positioned when the nozzle orifices are formed by the excimer laser
device.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the
appealed claims are:
Watanabe et al. (Watanabe) 5,208,604 May 4, 1993
Smith et al. (Smith) 5,538,817 Jul. 23, 1996
Hirukawa et al. (Hirukawa) 5,703,675 Dec. 30, 1997
Claims 1, 2, 6, 8-11 and 15 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Smith. Claims 3-5 and 12-14 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C.
2
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