Ex Parte Freeman et al - Page 2

                Appeal 2007-1170                                                                                 
                Application 10/971,698                                                                           
                have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b).  For the reasons given post, we                        
                AFFIRM but denote our affirmance as a new ground of rejection.                                   
                       The claimed invention relates to a sample evaporation container.                          
                Although not so limited in the independent claims, the device is disclosed to                    
                be used to evaporate an organic material and to deposit the vapor as a                           
                relatively uniform film on an organic light emitting device ("OLED")                             
                substrate in a vacuum chamber.                                                                   
                       The Examiner rejected claims 1–18 as obvious over the combined                            
                teachings of:                                                                                    
                       Freeman      US 2003/0,168,013 A1             11 September 2003                           
                       Spahn        US 6,237,529 B1                  29 May 2001                                 
                       Hanson       US 3,446,936                    27 May 1969                                 
                       Shen         US 2,793,609                    28 May 1957                                 
                B.     Findings of Fact                                                                          
                       The 698 disclosure                                                                        
                1.     Application 10/971,698 ("Specification") was filed on 25 October                          
                2004, as a continuation-in-part of original application 10/093,739, which                        
                was filed 8 March 2002, now abandoned.                                                           
                2.     According to the Specification, "a need exists for a thermal physical                     
                vapor deposition apparatus that efficiently produces a uniform coating on a                      
                variety of substrate materials."  (Specification at 4:30–31.)                                    
                3.     The Specification explains that prior solutions achieved more uniform                     
                vapor deposition by, for example, eliminating spatter from the evaporating                       


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