Appeal No. 2000-2001
Application No. 09/172,732
dielectric substrate and a heat spreader. Nothing in the prior
art even remotely suggests that such would provide for the
enhanced adhesion achieved by the present invention.”
The Examiner responds (answer at page 7) that the adhesion
is the main characteristic of ZnCr which is the “critical aspect
of the present invention.” We agree with the Examiner that
having an enhanced adhesion between the heat spreader and the
substrate is a critical part of the present invention and also
that the ZnCr intermediate layer was commercially available
at the time of the invention. However, we are persuaded
by Appellants’ arguments that the mere fact that ZnCr was
commercially available does not make it obvious to make use of
an intermediate layer of ZnCr for the recited application, which
further results in the enhanced heat transfer.
Appellants further argue (brief at page 5) that the
Examiner cites numerous references (U.S. Patent 5,343,073 to
Parthasarathi, U.S. Patents 5,367,196 and 5,608,267 to Mahulikar,
U.S. Patent 5,022,968 to Lin, U.S. Patent 5,302,158 to Chen,
U.S. Patent 4,740,425 to Leland et al.) for apparently taking a
“judicial notice” to show that the prior art does teach the
application of an intermediate ZnCr layer between a heat spreader
and a substrate. Appellants specifically argue (id.) that none
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