Appeal No. 2002-1823
Application 09/575,551
substrates and similar articles requiring very low contaminant
levels” (specification, page 1). Representative claim 56 reads
as follows:
56. A method for processing a semiconductor wafer, data
disk, semiconductor substrate and similar article[s] requiring
very low contaminant levels comprising the steps of:
moving a sealed container, holding at least one article in a
horizontal orientation, to an interface port of a processing
system;
unsealing the container by removing a panel of the
container, to provide access to the article in the container,
engaging the article with an engagement head;
pivoting the engagement head to move the article from a
horizontal orientation into a vertical orientation;
releasing the article from the engagement head;
placing the article on a shelf with the article in a
vertical orientation;
lifting the article off of the shelf with a transfer robot;
carrying the article on the robot to a process chamber;
opening the process chamber;
moving the article into the process chamber;
closing the process chamber;
processing the article in the process chamber.
THE PRIOR ART
The references relied on by the examiner to support the
final rejection are:
Kawabata 4,744,715 May 17, 1988
Iwai et al. (Iwai) 5,562,383 Oct. 8, 1996
THE REJECTIONS
Claims 56, 57, 62, 64 and 65 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 112, second paragraph, as failing to particularly point out and
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