Appeal No. 1998-1681 Page 11
Application No. 08/523,075
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the
art to postbake the positive resist in the process
of Miura JP 4-147641 while concurrently irradiating
the resist with UV light to harden the resist prior
to further processing based upon the teachings to do
so by Suzuki et al. ‘938 and Elliott “Integrated
circuit fabrication technology” to maintain
linewidth and ensure proper adhesion.
Even if we could agree with the examiner’s proposed
modification of the process of Miura (which we do not), the
examiner has not satisfactorily explained how such a
modification would result in appellant’s process. This is so
since the treatment of the substrate surface with UV rays and
heat in appellant’s process occurs after both exposure of the
entire surface to which photoresist was applied and removal of
the exposed photoresist. The examiner proposes to somehow
modify the process of Miura to include heating and UV
treatment of the resist of Miura based on the disparate
teachings of the applied secondary references. Such a
modification of Miura’s process would result in baking
(heating) and UV treatment of the substrate prior to resist
removal, which is not in accord with the here claimed process.
Accordingly, we will not sustain the examiner’s § 103
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