Appeal No. 2003-1269
Application 09/041,913
phase prior to forming the material layer and during a cool-down
phase subsequent to forming the material layer.
The examiner argues that “it would have been obvious to one
of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made
to apply the step of oscillating temperature of Roy during the
heating-up and the cooling-down phases as taught by Lee, since by
doing so one would be able to control temperatures with minimum
fluctuations during the heating-up and cooling-down stages,
which, in turn, would result in uniform properties of the
deposited material layer” (answer, page 6).
Both Roy’s temperature oscillation (col. 4, lines 21-22) and
Lee’s temperature increase or decrease (col. 6, lines 7-10) take
place during deposition. The oscillations required by the
appellants’ claims 11 and 12, however, take place, respectively,
before and after deposition. The examiner has not explained why
the disclosures of Roy and Lee pertaining to temperature
variation during deposition would have fairly suggested, to one
of ordinary skill in the art, carrying out those variations
before or after deposition. The examiner’s argument that doing
so would permit temperature control with minimum fluctuations is
not supported by the evidence relied upon by the examiner.
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