Appeal No. 2004-0760
Application No. 10/010,392
Anticipation is established only when a single prior art
reference discloses, expressly or under principles of inherency,
each and every element of a claimed invention. RCA Corp. v.
Applied Digital Data Sys., Inc., 730 F.2d 1440, 1444, 221 USPQ
385, 388 (Fed. Cir.), cert. dismissed, 468 U.S. 1228 (1984).
As framed and argued by the appellants, the dispositive
issue in the appeal is whether Maheshwari meets the limitations
in independent claim 5 requiring (1) the bending stiffness of the
substrate to be generally similar to the bending stiffness of the
stabilizing member, where bending stiffness is Et3 with E being
Young’s modulus and t being thickness, and (2) Young’s modulus of
the stabilizing member to be greater than Young’s modulus of the
substrate.
Although Maheshwari lacks an express teaching thereof, the
examiner finds (see pages 4 and 5 in the answer) that
Maheshwari’s semiconductor structure includes a substrate (the
flexible substrate) and a stabilizing member (the balance plate)
having the relationship specified in claim 5. According to the
examiner (see pages 8 through 10 in the answer), (1) the bending
stiffnesses of the flexible substrate and balance plate are
generally similar as calculated by Et3 because these elements
have the same thickness as shown in Figure 6 and a similar
5
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