Appeal No. 2003-1323
Application No. 09/421,803
We cannot uphold the Examiner’s rejection. Appellants’ claims 36 and 45 both
require processing a process layer on a wafer wherein the thickness of the process layer is
measured in a plurality of sensing locations during the processing of the process layer.
The measurements determine the surface uniformity of the process layer across the
plurality of sensing locations. The Examiner has not adequately explained where
Gevelber discloses the plurality of sensing locations for controlling the uniformity of the
processing layer on a substrate as required by the claimed invention. We note that
Gevelber discloses:
“[i]t may be desirable to vary the composition of the coating as the coating
is growing to achieve various objectives, such as functionally grading the
coating to match the thermal expansion coefficient of the substrate and then
to gradually change the thermal expansion coefficient. This can be
achieved by integrating the deposition rate to determine the coating
thickness (or measuring coating thickness directly) and then adjusting the
chemicals and/or deposition conditions to favor different compositions in
the reactions (see FIG. 7). FIG. 7 shows a control structure which allows
coordinated composition-thickness control.”
(Col. 13, ll. 6-16).
However, Gevelber does not indicate that the determination of the coating thickness (or
measuring coating thickness) is performed by plurality of sensing locations.
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