Appeal No. 2001-1512 3
Application No. 09/273,541
closing the exhaust valve so that all of the heat
transfer gas passing the pressure control valve is delivered
to a gap between the substrate and a substrate mounting
surface of a substrate holder;
measuring the pressure of the heat transfer gas which
is flowing in the gap between the substrate and the
substrate mounting surface of the substrate holder;
supplying the measured pressure to the pressure control
valve;
automatically controlling the flow rate of the heat
transfer gas with the pressure control valve on the basis of
a difference between the set pressure value and the measured
pressure such that the measured pressure of the heat
transfer gas becomes equal to the set pressure value and the
flow rate corresponds to a leakage rate of the heat transfer
gas; and
assessing a state of the gap between the substrate and
the substrate mounting surface on a basis of a comparison of
the heat transfer gas flow rate with a standard value.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the
Examiner in rejecting the appealed claims are:
Tezuka 4,771,730 Sep. 20, 1988
White 5,822,172 Oct. 13, 1998
(filed Jan. 7, 1997)
Claims 4 and 5 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over Tezuka in view of White.
We make reference to the answer (Paper No. 26, mailed
November 7, 2000) for the Examiner’s complete reasoning in
support of the rejection, and to the brief (Paper No. 25, filed
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007