Appeal No. 2005-0579
Application No. 09/887,910
which is essentially the same as the tool described in Goeckner"
(page 7 of Brief, last paragraph). It is the examiner's position
that, based on the combined teachings of Goeckner and Aronowitz,
it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art
to modify the ion implantation process of Goeckner to employ
pulsed low voltage nitrogen plasma doping to form a transistor
gate on the dielectric layer. The sole argument advanced by
appellants is that "[a]n inventor has submitted an affidavit
stating his reasons why one skilled in the art would not be
inclined to use the tool in Goeckner to carry out the invention
as claimed" (id.).
Jack Hwang, one of the present inventors, is the author of
the Affidavit relied upon by appellants. The affiant refers to
the tool of Goeckner as "the Varian tool," and states that "[t]he
Varian tool is typically used to implant ions to form source and
drain regions of transistors" (paragraph 4 of Affidavit). The
affiant further explains that appellants have modified the Varian
tool to provide one order of magnitude less power, and that
"[t]he application is also different in that our tool is used for
implanting ions into a gate dielectric layer of a transistor"
(paragraph 5 of Affidavit). Affiant adds that he has a
background in ion implantation and was transferred to a group
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