Appeal No. 2005-0873
Application 10/067,347
mask material. Accordingly, in our decision, we construe the
claims on appeal as directed to a intermediate product with
partially formed convex portions having some mask layer remaining
thereon.
Turning to the rejection of claim 50, the following are our
findings of fact with respect to the Althaus reference. Althaus
discloses making an optical coupling device out of a silicon
semiconductor wafer 10. A plurality of convex portions 11 are
produced on substrate 10. Afterwards, a mask layer 13 of metal
is placed on the substrate having the convex portions. Sections
of the metal layer 13 are removed leaving perforated diaphragms 4
of metal on the convex portions 11. See Althaus, Figure 3.
In our view, Althaus does not disclose that the height of
the convex portions 11 is specified on the basis of a thickness
of a mask layer. Althaus merely discloses annular diaphragm mask
4 to project out of the convex portions. We are in agreement
with appellant that the height of the convex portions is not
specified on the basis of the thickness of the mask layer 13. We
acknowledge the examiner’s argument that the thickness of the
mask layer specifies the height of the convex portion because the
mask layer is deposited directly on top of the convex portion.
The mask layer demarcates the height of the convex portion. We
merely note that the examiner in stating the argument
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