Interference No. 105,113
On the other hand, we agree with Ritzdorf that the following passage demonstrates an
intent to employ an annealing "oven" in Ritzdorf's invention:
In accordance with a still further embodiment of the method, the copper
metallization layer may be annealed before or after chemical mechanical polishing
at an elevated temperature which is substantially below the temperature used in
the annealing processes that have been traditionally employed. To this end, the
wafer having the metallization layer may be placed in an oven having a
temperature that is substantially below the 400 degrees Celsius traditionally
thought to be necessary to promote the annealing process of copper having such
small grain sizes. At a low temperature of about 60 degrees Celsius, the annealing
process may be completed in about 15 minutes. At temperatures above 100
degrees Celsius, the annealing times become so short (<1 minute) so as to make
annealing at higher temperatures unwarranted and wasteful.
'613 application at 18, ll. 5-13 (our emphasis). Cheung does not deny that such an annealing
"oven" constitutes an "annealing chamber" in the sense of Ritzdorf's claims. Instead, Cheung
denies that this annealing oven is described in the specification as part of a plating "system"
which also includes the other elements recited in Ritzdorf's claims. Reply 2, at 7. This argument
overlooks the fact that the above-quoted discussion of using an annealing "oven" in the invention
is preceded by a discussion of using the electrochemical deposition apparatus of Figure 1 to form
the copper metallization (id. at 13, l. 4 to p. 15, l. 15) and the statement that "[s]ubsequent rinsing
and drying steps may be executed on the wafer in, for example, other processing chambers
dedicated to such functions." Id. at 15, l. 21 to p. 16, l. 1. Thus, the inventors contemplated
using the annealing oven as part of a system includes all of these components. Furthermore,
although the specification does not explain how wafers are moved in and out of such a system
and between the system components, it is evident that some known type of wafer transferring
apparatus must have been contemplated for that purpose, such as the robots 620 and track 625 in
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