Appeal No. 2002-1183
Application 08/975,549
packaged product” (specification, page 3). Representative claim
28 reads as follows:
28. A method of manufacturing integrated circuits
comprising the steps of:
fabricating a plurality of die on a wafer;
segmenting said plurality of die;
performing electrical functionality testing each of said
plurality of segmented die to identify satisfactorily
nondefective die; and
packaging said satisfactorily nondefective die.
THE REJECTION
Claims 28 through 42 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a)
as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent No. 4,985,988 to
Littlebury.
Attention is directed to the appellants’ main and reply
briefs (Paper Nos. 15 and 19) and to the examiner’s final
rejection and answer (Paper Nos. 13 and 18) for the respective
positions of the appellants and the examiner with regard to the
merits of this rejection.
DISCUSSION
I. Preliminary matter
On pages 5 and 7 in the reply brief, the appellants, making
the dubious assertion that the examiner has entered a new ground
of rejection in the answer, request that we treat the portions of
the reply brief relating thereto as a petition under 37 CFR
§ 1.181(a). We decline to do so because, in addition to being
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