Appeal No. 2003-2175
Application No. 09/712,234
without a capping layer (with an exposed metal layer). However,
this non-laser beam heating technique requires two heating steps,
one for activating source/drain regions and another for forming a
metal silicide layer.
Thus, we determine that Chong and Yamazaki as a whole would
have led one of ordinary skill in the art to anneal the claimed
semiconductor device having an exposed metal layer with two non-
laser beam heating steps or anneal the claimed semiconductor device
having a capped (unexposed) metal layer with a single laser beam
heating step. However, as correctly asserted by the appellant
(Brief, page 9), “[t]here is no factual basis in Chong [and]
Yamazaki to support the conclusion that one having ordinary skill
in the art would have been led to anneal [the claimed]
semiconductor device having an exposed metal layer with [the
claimed] single heating step [(a temperature of about 350o C to
less than 850o C for about 30 seconds to 60 minutes)] that
activates source/drain regions and reacts the exposed metal layer
with an underlying silicon layer [(forming a metal silicide layer)
simultaneously]”. See In re Lee, 277 F.3d 1338, 1343-44, 61
USPQ2d 1430, 1434 (Fed. Cir. 2002)(“This factual question of
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