Appeal No. 2005-2754 Application No. 10/391,835 brief (filed November 22, 2004) and reply brief (filed February 15, 2005) for the arguments thereagainst. OPINION In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful consideration to appellants’ specification and claims, to the applied prior art references, and to the respective positions articulated by appellants and the examiner. As a consequence of our review, we have made the determination which follows. For the reasons set forth on pages 3-7 of the answer, the examiner has concluded that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of appellants’ invention, based on the collective teachings of the AAPA, LoVasco and Silhavy, to modify an unpopulated optical bench precursor structure like that used to facilitate the solder self-alignment process for optical components as described on page 1 of the specification (AAPA) by providing spacers and fixtures on the known optical bench structure near the solder pads for permitting vertical and lateral positioning alignment of the optical components with respect to the bench during solder reflow as generally taught by LoVasco (e.g., Fig. 21) and to further utilize a removable template like that seen at (59) of Silhavy as a substitute for the lateral alignment fixture (2131) of 3Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007