Appeal 2007-1295
Application 10/109,713
The Examiner concluded that
“it would have been obvious to one skilled
in the art in practicing the Chen invention to
have employed the suitable and conventional low-k
dielectric materials including MSZ since such is
conventional and advantageous as evidenced by
APA or Kikkawa wherein the use of MSZ as the
low dielectric constant films would have been
advantageous in eliminating photoresist coating, dry
etching and etchstop layer as delineated in the
instant specification page 8 lines 18-20 and as in
Kikkawa as delineated above. It would have been
obvious to one skilled in the art to have ALD
tungsten nitride as the barrier material since such
would have good step coverage and adhesion
characteristics as taught by Lopatin. The selection
of desired and suitable layer thicknesses for the
dielectric and nitride barrier is matter of routine
optimization well within the purview of one skilled
in the art and as such would have been obvious”
(Answer 4-5).
Appellants contend that a person of ordinary skill in the art would not
have been motivated to combine Chen, which teaches photoresist removal
employing a specific chemistry, with Lopatin, which teaches an ALD/ALE
process for copper structure formation (Br. 9).
We do not agree. As stated above, Lopatin describes an improved
interconnect structure including improved barrier and seed layers as well as
the method of forming these structures and layers to overcome recognized
drawbacks existing in the processing of copper interconnect formation.
Thus, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have used the process of
Lopatin for copper structure formation to overcome the drawbacks
recognized in the art. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have
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