Appeal No. 2002-1025 Page 4
Application No. 09/454,354
abrasive pads prior to their initial use, thereby enabling planarization of metallic
surfaces with significantly reduced defects, such as scratches.
Claim 1 reads as follows:
A method of preconditioning a fixed abrasive article comprising a plurality
of abrasive elements, the method comprising heating the fixed abrasive
article before initial use in chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) a surface
of a workpiece.
The claim stands rejected as being unpatentable over Brunelli in view of Duescher. It is
the examiner’s position that all of the subject matter recited in the claim is disclosed by
Brunelli except for preconditioning the pad before initial use. However, the examiner
contends it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to precondition
the Brunelli abrasive pad before its initial use in view of Duescher, suggestion being
found in Duescher’s teaching of doing so to remove defects and thus prevent scratching
of the workpiece (Paper No. 6, page 2).
Brunelli is concerned with periodically removing from an abrasive pad the waste
matter accumulations that build up in the course of planarizing substrates by chemical-
mechanical polishing (CMP), which over time adversely affects the CMP operation
(column 2, lines 59-64). This removal of accumulated material is accomplished by
heating the pad to a predetermined temperature to soften the accumulations so that
they can be more easily removed by means such as abrasives and blades (column 2,
line 64 et seq.; column 4, lines 13-26). Thus, Brunelli does not precondition pads, that
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