Appeal 2007-0888
Application 10/083,588
Appellant invented a wire bonding capillary for pressing a metal wire
against an electrode pad (Specification 1). This claimed wire bonding
capillary is defined by independent claim 3 as follows:
3. A method for preparing a wire bonding capillary comprising the
steps of:
(a) providing a wire bonding capillary for pressing a metal wire
against an electrode pad comprising a capillary tip having a
pressing face; and
(b) coating all of said pressing face of said capillary tip with a layer of
polymeric material, said polymeric material including at least one
thermoplastic polymer.
The prior art set forth below is relied upon by the Examiner as
evidence of obviousness:
Gilding US 4,049,506 Sep. 20, 1977
Evans US 4,950,365 Aug. 21, 1990
Claims 3 and 4 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Gilding in view of Evans.
The Examiner finds that claim 3 distinguishes from the method for
preparing a wire bonding capillary of Gilding in that the protective coating
on the titanium carbide layer is a silicone material and not a thermoplastic
polymer (Answer 4). The Examiner finds that Evans describes the use of
thermoplastic polymers comprising poly-p-xylene as coatings over hard
metal layers such as titanium carbide for corrosion resistance (Answer 4).
The Examiner concludes that it would have been obvious for one of ordinary
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