Appeal No. 2004-2277
Application No. 09/886,760
Together, the emitter and sensor units function to establish a
reference and to measure position deviations in order to provide
the accurate feedback necessary for positioning operations (see
column 6, line 49, through column 7, line 13). The processing
unit is a computer or a microcontroller which receives the
position information from the sensing unit for subsequent display
or for use as input in a closed-loop positioning system (see the
Abstract).
In combining the admitted prior art and Thomas to reject
independent claims 1 and 9, the examiner submits that it would
have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time
the invention was made to provide the admitted prior art
apparatus and method with the system taught by Thomas in order to
align the prior art loadport and wafer cassette delivery system
(see pages 4 and 5 in the answer).
The appellants counter that this rejection is unsound
because the applied prior art, and particularly Thomas, fails to
respond to the above noted claim limitations. According to the
appellants, “Thomas et al does not teach a closed-loop control
system that actually uses the measured data to perform any
correction in the positioning system (for adjusting any
misalignment)” (brief, page 7).
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