Appeal No. 2006-1333
Application No. 10/347,849
deposition process, the first deposition of which is at a “reduced” rate. Although the value
of this “reduced” rate is not explicitly disclosed, we find no error in the Examiner’s assertion
that, from a reading of the entirety of Venkatesan’s disclosure, the ordinarily skilled artisan
would recognize and appreciate that such “reduced” rate would be at the lower end of the
500-1200 Å/minute high deposition rate range identified by Venkatesan. Thus, the lower
limit of this range, i.e. 500 Å/minute (or 50nm/min) would satisfy the requirements of claim
24.
We find support for the Examiner’s position in the fact that Venkatesan’s disclosure
draws a distinction between low and high deposition rates. The disadvantages of
deposition processes with low deposition rates, i.e., 20-100 Å/minute are discussed in the
“Background of the Invention” section of Venkatesan at column 1, lines 25-50. The entire
description of the invention disclosed in the Venkatesan reference, on the other hand, is
directed to
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