Appeal 2006-3235
Reexamination Control No. 90/006,696
1 Stephens at 642, 2d col. Stephens further explains, under the heading
2 “3.4 Isothermal plotting,” that
3 [t]o assist in microcircuit design evaluation, the
4 technique may be used to obtain isotherms of the die
5 surface. . . .
6 An increase in the hot stage temperature results in
7 the same increase in the device surface temperature, thus
8 producing dark areas wherever the threshold temperature
9 is exceeded; successive incremental increases in hot stage
10 temperature enable an isothermal profile to be built up.
11 Stephens at 643, 1st col.26
12 Sinnadurai (Br. Ex. L; Reexam. Ex. 4)
13 28. The two authors of the Stephens article (i.e., C.E. Stephens and
14 F.N. Sinnadurai) are two of the three inventors named in British Patent
15 Specification No. 1,442,802, entitled “Temperature Measurement Using
16 Liquid Crystals” (hereinafter “Sinnadurai”).
17 29. Sinnadurai discloses using the anisotropic-isotropic transition
18 temperature of a liquid crystal material to locate a plurality of isotherms
19 which can be used to generate a temperature profile of an active integrated
20 circuit device. Sinnadurai at 1, ll. 10-15.
21 In the case, for example, of the surface of an
22 electrical component having a temperature field across it
23 by virtue of an electrical dissipation within it, a
24 temperature profile for the component surface can be
25 built up by determining positions of isotherms for
26 differing ambient temperatures of the component by the
27 method described hereinbefore.
28 Id. at 1, ll. 81-89.
26 As explained infra, Aszodi likewise uses the results of plural
detection processes to form an isothermal profile of a device.
20
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