Appeal No. 2005-0536
Application No. 09/940,788
amount of inert gas to be supplied to the face of each wafer is
such that the amount of inert gas supplied at the outer
peripheral portion is larger than that at the center thereof.
In the rejection of the appealed claims, the examiner relies
upon the following reference:
Cady 4,544,446 Oct. 1, 1985
Appellants' claimed invention is directed to a method of
cleaning wet-cleaned wafers that are not stored in a cassette.
The method entails spin drying with an inert gas the face of a
wafer as it is rotated at high speed in a sealed cleaning
housing. The amount of inert gas applied at the outer peripheral
portion of the wafer is larger than that supplied at the center
of the wafer. According to appellants, the result of supplying
the inert gas in a greater amount to the outer peripheral portion
of the wafer "is that the concentration of oxygen is
substantially reduced to zero or close to zero while decreasing
the usage of the inert gas as much as possible" (page 3 of
principal brief, penultimate paragraph).
Appealed claims 1-3 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b)
as being anticipated by Cady.1
1 The examiner has withdrawn the § 102 rejection over
Bergman.
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