Appeal No. 2004-0016
Application No. 09/496,081
The rejection cannot stand because the examiner has failed
to establish that one of ordinary skill in the art would have
found it obvious to form a bottom capacitor plate with
essentially only TiN. Gonzales, like Lee, discloses that TiN is
a diffusion barrier between the N+ junction and the tungsten, but
Gonzales provides no teaching that the TiN layer, alone, can
function as a bottom capacitor plate without the tungsten. Lee,
likewise, is deficient in providing such a teaching since, as
acknowledged by the examiner, Lee is not directed to a capacitor
but only, at best, "a generic contact structure which can be
provided on different types of semiconductor devices" (page 7 of
Answer, paragraph one). Hence, without the teaching that a layer
consisting essentially of TiN can function as a bottom capacitor
plate, the examiner's rejection lacks the requisite factual
support. In re Warner, 379 F.2d 1011, 1017, 154 USPQ 173, 177-78
(CCPA 1967).
Sandhu, cited by the examiner for disclosing a capacitor
including a high dielectric constant material and particular
capacitor structures, does not alleviate the deficiency of the
combined teachings of Gonzales and Lee discussed above.
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