Appeal No. 2005-2522 Page 7
Application No. 09/841,453
concerned with preventing moisture absorption and corrosion of
the silanol (Si-OH) groups on the porous dielectric surface of
their microelectronic integrated circuit. Thus, Grainger’s
teachings that the polymers disclosed therein will bond or
chemisorb with such hydroxyl groups and that such polymers can be
useful in microporous surface applications, including
microelectronic circuits, would reasonably have led one of
ordinary skill in the art to employ the hydrophobic polymer
coating of Grainger in conjunction with the dielectric of Jin, as
a surface coating therefore.
In light of the above, appellants’ contentions that Grainger
does not relate to increasing the hydrophobicity of a porous
film, such as the dielectric of Jin, is not persuasive. In this 4
regard, Grainger (column 13, lines 26-30) teaches that the
polymeric coatings thereof can be employed with microporous
substrates, including microelectronic circuit surfaces. See
column 14, lines 34-67 of Grainger. Moreover, appellants’
comment (brief, page 7) concerning the alleged long polymeric
4In this regard, we further note that representative claim
20 is not limited to a particular pore size by the claim term
nanoporous as evidenced by the about 1 nm to about 100 nm pore
sizes set forth in appellants’ Detailed Description of the
Preferred Embodiment section of the specification. See page 22
of appellants’ specification.
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