Appeal 2007-0300
Application 10/101,960
refractory material. According to Appellants, the CVD technique avoids the
shrinkage and cracking problems associated with the prior art technique of
applying refractory material in liquid form to the wire coil followed by
drying to obtain the desired refractory coating (Specification 4-5, 9).
Representative claim 1, the sole independent claim on appeal, reads as
follows:
1. A method for forming a sensing or compensating bead for a gas
sensor, comprising the steps of:
forming a coil of metal wire;
depositing onto the coil of wire by CVD at least one first layer of an
insulating, crack-free refractory coating having a thickness between 1 and 10
µm, to form thereby a coil of coated wire;
depositing onto the coil of coated wire by CVD a further refractory
layer having a thickness of 20 to 100 µm to sheath the coil to stabilize the
coil dimensionally, and
depositing onto the sheathed and stabilized coil at least one further
layer to convert the coated wire coil to a sensing or compensating bead.
The references set forth below are relied upon by the Examiner as
evidence of obviousness:
Allman US 4,068,021 Jan. 10, 1978
Khilnani US 4,560,585 Dec. 24, 1985
Koda US 4,938,928 Jul. 3, 1990
Poli US 5,401,470 Mar. 28, 1995
Okajima US 5,821,402 Oct. 13, 1998
2
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