Appeal No. 2006-1663
Application No. 09/871,883
In our view, this disclosure would have motivated one of ordinary skill in the art at
the time the invention was made to combine Havemann’s overlapping
encapsulation material structure with Farrar’s barrier layer-to-barrier layer contact
region to produce an interconnect structure without deleterious mechanical effects.
As the Examiner notes, Havemann discloses that his invention produces
insulating and conducting layers in semiconductors without deleterious mechanical
effects. (Havemann, abstract). Havemann’s disclosure relating to forming the
insulating and conducting layer “without deleterious mechanical effects” includes
forming the overlapping encapsulation material structure shown in Figure 3G (i.e.,
encapsulation layer (i.e., upper conductive liner) 48 and encapsulation material
(i.e., lower conductive liner) 36). In looking at the prior art as a whole, Havemann
indicates the desirability of using his overlapping encapsulation material structure
to provide a more robust dielectric layer, and insulating and dielectric layers
without deleterious mechanical effects. (Havemann, abstract). From the foregoing,
Havemann provides motivation for the combination with Farrar, that is, to produce
layers “without deleterious mechanical effects.”
Appellants’ argument that one of ordinary skill would not know from
Havemann’s disclosure which aspects are responsible for forming layers “without
deleterious mechanical effects” is not persuasive. As part of Havemann’s
description to form the layers “without deleterious mechanical effects,” Havemann
discloses the overlapping encapsulation material structure of Figure 3G. We find
that one of ordinary skill in the art reading Havemann’s disclosure would have
understood that using the overlapping encapsulation material structure of Figure
3G would yield beneficial mechanical effects in the insulating and conducting
layers. Moreover, we find that the overlapping encapsulation material structure
12
Page: Previous 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007