Appeal 2006-1260
Application 09/956,411
INTRODUCTION
Claim 17 is illustrative:
17. A method of making an OLED device, comprising the steps of:
(a) providing a substrate;
(b) forming an anode of conductive material over the substrate;
(c) depositing an emissive layer having an electroluminescent
material provided over the anode layer;
(d) forming a buffer layer, provided over the emissive layer and
comprising a heavy alkaline [sic, alkali1] metal halide; and
(e) sputtering a metal or metal alloy layer provided over the buffer
layer.
The Examiner relies on the following prior art references to show
anticipation and obviousness:
Hung US 5,677,572 Oct. 14, 1997
Nakaya EP 0 876 086 A2 Nov. 4, 1998
Chen US 6,020,078 Feb. 1, 2000
Aziz US 6,614,175 B2 Sep. 2, 2003
1 Appellants disclose that the claimed “heavy alkaline metal halide” used to
form the buffer layer is selected from the elements listed in Group IA of the
periodic table that are heavier than lithium (Specification 9). These Group
IA elements are conventionally referred to as alkali metals, not alkaline
metals. However, Appellants refer to these Group IA containing compounds
as heavy alkaline metal halides throughout the specification and the claims.
By convention, the appropriate term would be heavy alkali metal halides.
Thus, we shall refer to these compounds as heavy alkali metal halides in this
opinion. This usage (i.e., alkali rather than alkaline) conforms with the
usage in the reference to Hung.
2
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