Appeal No. 2005-0713
Application No. 10/153,719 Page 10
Nguyen. The examiner rebuts (answer, page 9) this argument by
asserting that the motivation is “to minimize reflected power.”
We find appellant’s argument persuasive.
Nakano teaches (col. 2, ll. 20-30 and col. 4, ll. 3-10) a
novel way to clean a reaction chamber in order to avoid switching
out the band eliminator by varying the variable capacitor so that
the impedance reaches a local maximum value. Implicit in this
teaching is the desire to enhance the reflected power, as argued
by appellant at page 11 of the brief. Absent some evidence of a
motivation to minimize the reflected power by incorporating a
decoupling capacitor in the plasma processing apparatus of Nakano,
we cannot agree that a prima facie case of obviousness has been
established. In this regard, the examiner bears the burden of
explaining why minimizing reflected power would be advantageous in
the system of Nagano. Merely asserting that Nguyen employs a
blocking capacitor to minimize reflected power in the system of
Nguyen does not explain why such a result would be desirable in
the apparatus of Nakano, wherein a cleaning function at a maximum
impedance value would be desired. Accordingly we reverse this
rejection.
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