Appeal No. 1998-1681 Page 6
Application No. 08/523,075
step is intercepted to determine whether a gel substance was
present or not during the etching step. Intercepted scattered
light from protrusions generated during the etching step as a
result of the presence of any such gel substances act as a
positive indication of the presence of such gel substances
during the etch.
In flawed attempts at establishing the obviousness of
appellant’s techniques for inspecting for gel substances as
set forth in independent claim 26 and the claims depending
therefrom, the examiner relies on various excerpts from a book
by Elliott together with Miura, Nakai and Lewis in a § 103
rejection of claims 26-33 and 35 and the examiner additionally
relies on Muller in a separately stated § 103 rejection of
claims 26-35.
The excerpts from the work of Elliott selected by the
examiner include some pages from chapters 1, 8, 9, 10, 11 and
12 of the book entitled Integrated Circuit Fabrication
Technology. According to the examiner (answer, page 4),
Elliott describes a variety of conventional processes used in
making integrated circuit devices including “. . . exposure,
resist development, postbaking, etching and cleaning or
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