Appeal No. 2004-1988
Application No. 09/733,718
a base metal structure having an adherent layer of nickel
covering said base metal;
an adherent film of palladium on said nickel layer; and
an adherent layer of palladium on said palladium film,
selectively covering areas of said lead frame suitable
for bonding wire attachment and solder attachment.
In the rejection of the appealed claims, the examiner relies
upon the following references:
Abys et al. (Abys) 5,360,991 Nov. 1, 1994
Tsuji et al. (Tsuji) 5,521,432 May 28, 1996
Kim et al. (Kim) 5,767,574 Jun. 16, 1998
Appellants' claimed invention is directed to a leadframe
that is used in the assembly of integrated circuit chips. The
leadframe comprises a base metal structure having a nickel layer
adhered thereon, a palladium film adhered on the nickel layer,
and a layer of palladium adhered on the palladium film. The
layer of palladium selectively covers areas of the leadframe that
are suitable for bonding wire and solder attachments.
Appealed claims 1-3, 5, 9 and 21-23 stand rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being anticipated by Kim. Claims 21-23
stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being anticipated by
Abys. In addition, claims 4, 6, 10 and 11 stand rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Kim, whereas
claims 8 and 12-16 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
being unpatentable over Kim in view of Tsuji.
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