Appeal No. 2004-1231
Application 09/481,224
apparatus” in claim 13.
A review of the prosecution history shows that Appellants
amended claim 1 on June 25, 2001 as follows:
1. (Amended) An apparatus for off-line pre-conditioning a
conditioning disc comprising:
an upper platform not situated in a CMP apparatus for
mounting a conditioning disc thereto exposing a first
surface to be preconditioned and for rotating in a first
direction;
a lower platform not situated in a CMP apparatus for
mounting a polishing pad thereto exposing a surface
for pre-conditioning said conditioning disc and for rotating in a
second direction opposite to said first direction;
Similarly, Appellants amended claim 13 on March 5, 2003 as
follows:
13. (Amended) A method for off-line preconditioning a
conditioning disc comprising the steps of: providing a pre-
conditioning apparatus not situated in a CMP apparatus equipped
with a rotatable upper platform, a rotatable lower platform, means
for applying a
pressure between said upper platform and said lower platform and
means for moving said upper platform and said lower platform toward
each other;
We find that Appellants’ specification on page 2 describes the
CMP apparatus as a chemical-mechanical polishing apparatus employed
in combination with a pneumatically actuated polishing head.
Particularly, lines 16-18 on page 2 of the Appellants’
specification state “CMP apparatus is used primarily for polishing
the front face or device side of a semiconductor wafer during the
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