Appeal No. 2005-2522 Page 6
Application No. 09/841,453
Concerning that claim requirement for a hydrophobic coating
formed using an oligomer/polymer surface modification agent, the
examiner turns to the additional teachings of Grainger, including
those referred to at page 4 of the answer. In this regard,
Grainger discloses, inter alia, the formation of films for
imparting hydrophobic substrate surface properties using
polymeric materials that react with surface hydroxyl groups.
Grainger informs one of ordinary skill in the art that the films
can be formed on structures that are microporous, including such
microporous structures used in microelectronics. Grainger
teaches or suggests that the film chemisorbs (reacts) with
surfaces containing oxygen or hydroxyl groups, including
dielectric coated semiconductor wafers. See, e.g., column 3,
lines 12-28, column 4, line 19 through column 5, line 51, column
12, line 51 through column 13, line 30, and column 14, lines 34-
67 of Grainger.
Given the above-noted teachings of Grainger with respect to
the use of polymer surface modification to form a hydrophobic
surface coating for a porous microelectronic device, we agree
with the examiner that it would have been obvious to one of
ordinary skill in the art to employ such a surface coating for
the nanoporous silica dielectric of Jin. After all, Jin is
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