Appeal No. 2002-0897
Application 09/303,020
conclusion that the brush scrubbing of Roy et al. would
necessarily clean an open portion of a cavity provided by
Doan et al.” (reply brief, pages 2-3).
The reasonable expectation of success in using Roy’s brush
scrubbing to clean particles out of Doan’s open cavity would have
been provided to one of ordinary skill in the art by Roy’s
teaching that his post-CMP cleanup process is applicable to CMP
of films other than interfacial dielectric films (col. 2,
lines 53-56). This teaching would have indicated to one of
ordinary skill in the art that Roy’s brush scrubbing is
applicable to CMP of films generally, including both smooth and
cavity-containing films.
Regarding the appellants’ argument that the references do
not indicate that Roy’s brush scrubbing necessarily would clean
particles out of Doan’s open cavity, we note that both the
appellants (specification, page 8, lines 12-13) and Roy (col. 5,
lines 29-30; col. 6, lines 15-18) appear to use conventional
wafer layer cleaning brushes. Due to this apparent similarity of
the brushes, it reasonable appears that the brushes provide the
same or substantially the same effect. See In re Spada, 911 F.2d
705, 708, 15 USPQ2d 1655, 1657-58 (Fed. Cir. 1990).
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