Appeal No. 2006-1871 Παγε 6
Application No. 10/245,442
Here, we determine that there is ample motivation in the
combined teachings of the references for one of ordinary skill in
the art to have modified the deposition process of Nguyen to
include a cleaning process sequence as taught by Ameen with a
reasonable expectation of success in achieving a process
corresponding to appellants’ claimed process. See In re
O'Farrell, 853 F.2d 894, 903-904, 7 USPQ2d 1673, 1681 (Fed. Cir.
1988). In this regard, the examiner maintains that one of
ordinary skill in the art would have been led to clean the
chemical vapor deposition reaction chamber of Nguyen by
introducing a cleaning gas through the gas distribution plate
(showerhead) to react with deposits within the chamber after
substrate removal as taught by Ameen to be advantageous for
system stability. This is because the cleaning gas removes
accumulated reactants, reaction products and byproducts from the
reactor surfaces. See page 4, penultimate line through page 5,
line 9, and pages 8 and 9 of the answer together with the
portions of the applied reference referred to in that portion of
the answer. Such reactor cleaning allows for continued use of
the deposition rector following the cleaning while avoiding
contaminating substrates with reactor deposits that would
otherwise have built up in the reactor and flaked off without the
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