Appeal No. 2002-0677
Application 09/257,899
The portion of Ko relied upon by the examiner pertains to
the appellant’s claim 32 which recites treating an amorphous
silicon layer overlying a polysilicon layer to form a polysilicon
surface having grains thereon. The relied-upon portion of Ko
discloses making a capacitor layer of materials which can be
amorphous silicon (col. 3, lines 58-64).
The admitted prior art relied upon by the examiner is a
disclosure that it was known in the art to form hemispherical
grain polysilicon at a critical temperature and pressure at which
an anomalous nucleation occurs, and that the grains are so close
together that a dielectric layer deposited over them bridges
between the grains (specification, page 4, line 21 - page 5,
line 10).
The appellant’s independent claims require 1) deposition of
a silicon or polysilicon layer on a substrate before deposition
of the layer from which the hemispherical grains are formed, and
2) etching or removing part of the hemispherical grain-containing
layer to decrease the size of the grains or increase the surface
area. The examiner argues that the appellant’s admitted prior
art and Hirota show that forming hemispherical grains was known
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