Appeal No. 2003-1260 Page 13
Application No. 09/850,654
material, each sidewall having a spacer disposed thereon, and each spacer being in contact with
the metallic material.” The specification describes conductive structures 114 that “may or may
not be aligned with the underlying via structures 109, as illustrated in Figure 1C.” But
differences in alignment do not necessarily translate to differences in size such that the
conductive structure with all its sidewalls extend from the surface of the metallic material in the
via. Such an arrangement would require the diameter or width of the conductive structure to be
smaller in all directions than the via. It is not clear that such a size difference was described in
the original written description.
CONCLUSION
To summarize, the decision of the Examiner to reject claims 1-7, 10-17, 19, and 20 under
35 U.S.C. § 102(a) and claims 8, 9, and 18 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) is affirmed.
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007