Appeal 2007-0910
Application 10/108,807
Consistent with Best, the Examiner has provided sufficient evidence to shift
the burden to the Appellant to evince that the prior art fabric does not
possess the claimed ion levels. However, the Appellant has not proffered
any factual evidence to show that prior art fabric does not possess the
claimed level of ion impurities.
Even were we to determine that the prior art fabric does not have the
claimed level of ion impurities, our conclusion would not be altered. As
acknowledged by the Appellant (Specification 1, 2, and 4):
Various types of fabrics have historically been manufactured
into wiping cloths, or wipers, for utilization in a number of
different cleaning applications, such as industrial
cleanrooms, preparing surfaces for coatings, and general
cleaning. Each different application emphasizes certain
standards that these types of wipers should attain. For
example, wipers utilized in cleanrooms must meet stringent
performance standards. These standards are related to sorbency
and contamination, including maximum allowable particulate,
unspecified extractable matter and individual ionic
contaminates. The standards for particulate contaminant release
are especially rigorous and various methods have been devised
to meet them….
Ions such as Na, Li, NH4, K, Mg, Ca, Fl, Cl, NO4, PO4, and SO4
are generally inherently present in a textile fabric. These ions
may be detrimental to a cleanroom environment, especially in
the semi-conductor industry, because the ions: (a) can be
transferred to the silicon wafer circuitry; (b) can cause
corrosion on the wafer circuitry, and (c) can cause short circuit
in the wafer circuitry. It is known that deionized water
may be used to reduce or eliminate these ions from the fabric so
they may be suitable for use, for example, in cleanroom
applications. Deionized water acts as an attractant to
the ions in the fabric so that the ions are pulled off the fabric
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Last modified: September 9, 2013