Appeal No. 2002-1157
Application No. 08/901,940
using solder balls 80 (brief, pages 9 & 10). However, the focus
of the Examiner’s response to Appellants’ arguments is that
Ainslie discloses a dummy thin-film pattern, such as extension
pattern 49, in a slider-mounting portion (answer, page 11).
Ainslie relates to a method for attaching a slider to a
suspension, which is attached to a support arm of the head
positioning actuator (col. 1, lines 15-28). Ainslie provides for
a pattern of solder contact pads on the back side of the slider
and a similar pattern on the planar portion of the suspension to
which the slider is to be attached (col. 2, lines 46-50. Ainslie
further teaches that because the orientation of the slider with
respect to the suspension is determined by the pattern of the
solder contact pads, the slider can be reliably positioned on the
suspension by merely orienting the solder contact pads (col. 3,
lines 51-55). As depicted in Figures 2 and 3, Ainslie
mechanically bonds slider 16 to the large area portions 52 and 54
of conductive pattern 44 by reflowed solder balls 60 between the
slider back 24 and the conductive layer 44 (col. 5, lines 50-53).
We further note that the portion of the reference relied on
by the Examiner (col. 5, lines 57-59) merely refers to extensions
49 of portion 52 as the areas onto which the inactive transducer
13 are connected and has nothing to do with the claimed dummy
12
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