Appeal No. 2002-1823
Application 09/575,551
as a holding member that contains a large number of
(for example, 100) wafers W. The input/output chamber
13 inputs and outputs the wafers W to and from the
loading chamber 8. The cassette accommodating vessel
port 14 is disposed in the input/output chamber 13.
The holding member accommodating chamber 16 is disposed
between the loading chamber 8 and the input/output
chamber 13. The holding member accommodating chamber
16 accommodates the wafer boat 6. A cassette receiving
mechanism 17 and a clean air blowing means 18 are
disposed in the input/output chamber 13. The cassette
receiving mechanism 17 receives a cassette C from a
cassette accommodating vessel. The clean air blowing
means 18 forces a side flow of clean air into the
cassette C [column 6, lines 18 through 41].
As conceded by the examiner (see page 4 in the final
rejection), Iwai does not respond to the limitations in
independent claim 56, and the corresponding limitations in
independent claim 65, requiring the article to be held in a
sealed container in a horizontal orientation, engaged and moved
by an engagement head from the horizontal orientation into a
vertical orientation and placed on a shelf in the vertical
orientation. Although Iwai’s article (wafer W) is held in a
sealed container (cassette accommodating vessel 30) in a
horizontal orientation, it remains in the horizontal orientation
as it is engaged and moved by an engagement head (elements 42A
and 43), placed on a shelf (carrier transfer 46), and further
transported through the apparatus into the process chamber
9
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