Appeal No. 2000-1810
Application No. 09/148,556
comprising an oxygen containing gas and boron trichloride.
The method finds utility in preparing microelectronic
fabrications.
Appealed claims 1-15 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103
as being unpatentable over Huang in view of Cote.
Upon careful consideration of the opposing arguments
presented on appeal, we concur with appellants that the
examiner has not established a prima facie case of obviousness
for the claimed method. Accordingly, we will not sustain the
examiner's rejection for essentially those reasons expressed
in the principal and reply briefs on appeal.
The examiner appreciates that although Huang discloses
the methodology of the claimed method, Huang is silent with
respect to the etchant compositions. Accordingly, the
examiner relies upon Cote for demonstrating that it was known
in the art to use a gaseous etchant comprising boron
trichloride. However, blanket plasma etchable layer 52 or 62
of Huang is a silicon oxide material, whereas the etchable
layer of Cote is tungsten or a tungsten alloy. Hence, even
assuming for the sake of argument that Cote discloses a
gaseous etchant comprising an oxygen containing gas and boron
-3-
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007