Appeal No. 2004-0999
Application No. 09/997,086
Rejection of Claims 15, 19, and 20
We now address the rejection of independent claim 15 and its
dependent claims 19 and 20 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being obvious
over Ibnabdeljalil and Igarashi. We note that both Appellants
and Examiner admit that Ibnabdeljalil teaches forming the
interconnect layer within the at least one dicing street, but
Ibnabdeljalil does not teach the trench. See last paragraph on
page 14 of the brief through line 6 on page 15 of the brief,
and page 6 of the answer. The Examiner relies on Igarashi for
the teaching of forming at least one wide trench 103 in Fig.
12A. See page 6 of the answer. Appellants argue that "although
Igarashi teaches forming a trench, Igarashi does not teach or
suggest forming a trench in an interconnect layer as required by
the present claims." (Emphasis added). See page 15 of the
brief.
We find that Igarashi's Fig. 12A shows that Igarashi's wide
trench 103 is formed through the layer 104. However, Igarashi's
layer 104 is a conductive layer only. Thus, Igarashi does not
teach the interconnect layer specifically defined as alternating
layers of dielectric material and patterned electrically
conductive material in claim 15. Consequently, we find that the
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