Appeal No. 2001-2388
Application 09/151,948
Huang teaches that when conductive lines are formed by the
traditional method of etching a metal layer, it is extremely
difficult to form a planarized layer after filling in the spaces
between the conductive lines, and there are other difficulties
such as void formation between the conductive lines, trapping of
impurities and volatile materials in the spaces between
conductive lines, and “poor metal step coverage, residual metal
shorts leading to inconsistent manufacturability, low yields,
uncertain reliability and poor ultra large scale integration
extendability” (col. 1, lines 35-53).
Huang’s method is a dual damascene technique wherein
trenches and vias are simultaneously filled with conductive
material (col. 5, lines 30-33). The method forms an
interconnection structure comprising conductive lines and
conductive vias wherein the distance between conductive lines
preferably is less than about 0.35 micron, thereby improving the
density and ultra large scale integration (col. 5, lines 17-27;
col. 9, lines 38-56).
The examiner argues that it would have been obvious to one
of ordinary skill in the art to use Huang’s method instead of the
admitted prior art method to form an interconnect/metal pixel
structure “since the method of Huang used to produce an
5
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007