Appeal No. 2002-0702
Application No. 09/711,324
Ding additionally discloses that his etchant composition
preferably includes his aforementioned fluorohydrocarbon gas in
combination with a fluorocarbon gas which is preferably CF4
(e.g., see the paragraph bridging columns 2 and 3 as well as the
paragraph bridging columns 9 and 10). Thus, patentee’s
disclosure would have suggested an etchant gas composition
comprising the fluorohydrocarbon gas C2H4F2 in admixture with the
fluorocarbon gas CF4. This is significant because such a mixture
corresponds to the etchant mixture disclosed and claimed by the
appellants as possessing the selectivity characteristic under
consideration (e.g., again see specification page 8 as well as
dependent claims 11, 16, 28 and 35).
Under the circumstances recounted above, it is appropriate
to conclude that the etchant composition disclosure of Ding would
have suggested etchant mixtures such as C2H4F2 in combination with
CHF3 as well as C2H4F2 in combination with CF4. Because these
etchant mixtures correspond to those which are disclosed and
claimed by the appellants as providing the selectivity
characteristic defined by the appealed independent claims, it is
appropriate to consider these etchant mixtures suggested by Ding
to necessarily and inherently possess the aforementioned
selectivity characteristic. See In re Skoner 517 F.2d 947, 950,
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