Appeal No. 2003-1573
Application No. 08/854,407
Matsushita, and Cuomo (Answer, page 4). We reverse this rejection
essentially for the reasons stated in the Brief and those reasons
set forth below.
OPINION
It is undisputed that Bonyhard teaches the basic structure of
a MR sensor 50 as recited in claims 1 and 9 on appeal (Brief, page
10; Answer, pages 4-5).3 As indicated by claim 25 on appeal,
appellant’s improvement is directed to sputter depositing the
spacer and bias layers in a sputtering gas mixture of nitrogen in
argon to incorporate a sufficient amount of nitrogen into these
layers to increase the resistivity thereof. Accordingly, the
dispositive issue is whether the applied secondary references
disclose, teach or suggest this improvement in the MR sensor of
Bonyhard.
We agree with the examiner that Jenson teaches the advantages
of using a nitrogen doped tantalum as a spacer layer between MR
layers, namely that this type of spacer layer “prevents exchange
coupling” or “prevent[s] the magnetic domains in layer 18 from
3As correctly stated by appellant on page 7 of the Brief,
claim 9 differs from claim 1 on appeal by not requiring the
incorporation of nitrogen into the spacer layer by sputtering in
a gas mixture of nitrogen and argon. For completeness, we
consider all of the references as applied against both claims 1
and 9 on appeal.
3
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