Appeal No. 2001-1690
Application 08/859,407
of the beam. See id., page 4, lines 7-8. One prior art method
of reducing the amount of debris which enters the undercut well
is disclosed in Mignardi. See id., page 4, line 27 - page 5,
line 5. In Mignardi’s method, a wafer comprising a plurality of
devices is positioned on a dicing tape and then completely sawn
to separate the devices from one another. See id., page 5, lines
1-3. The separated devices are left on the dicing tape during
any further fabrication steps which may include device testing
and undercutting of the spacer layer beneath the mirrors. See
id. at lines 3-5.
According to appellant, Mignardi still suffers from the
drawback that automatic pick-and-place equipment or human
handling is required to move the devices onto the final package.
In particular, the equipment/handling may generate damaging
particles which enter the undercut well during transfer of a
device onto the package where it is secured and hermetically
sealed. See id., page 4, lines 15-20. See Appeal Brief, Paper
No. 12, received June 3, 2000, page 4, first paragraph.
Appellant maintains that the method of the invention
overcomes the aforementioned drawbacks of the prior art by
mounting partially fabricated micromechanical devices on a
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