Appeal No. 2007-1530
Application 10/095,112
Based on the foregoing considerations, Pyzik states that
it would be most advantageous to the industry to have a lightweight,
stiff, electrically conductive substrate material, which may be a
sputter-ready textured substrate, that is easy to manufacture and low in
cost.
It would also be most advantageous to have a disk substrate,
and a process for making same, in which the substrate has excellent
physical properties and is easily texturized either in situ or following a
plating process.
(Col. 3, ll. 20-27.)3
Pyzik achieves the foregoing goals by making the disk substrate of either a
ceramic-ceramic composite material or a ceramic-metal composite material (col. 5,
ll. 8-10). The preferred ceramic-metal composite material is an aluminum-boron-
carbon (Al—B—C) composite material (col. 7, ll. 25-27). Aluminum is the
preferred metal because it is lightweight, thermally conductive, and highly reactive
with the boron carbide ceramic (col. 7, ll. 27-29). The aluminum component
preferably takes the form of an aluminum alloy that provides improved stiffness
relative to pure aluminum (col. 7, ll. 29-31).
Pyzik’s Figure 3 is a chart listing the values for the following properties of
aluminum, Al2O3, SiC, Canasite (glass ceramic), and an Al—B—C composite:
(a) density; (b) elastic modulus (GPa); (c) specific modulus; (d) electrical
resistivity (ohm-cm); (e) flexure strength (MPa); (f) fracture toughness (MPa-m1/2);
and (g) hardness (Kg/mm2). Arrows indicate whether a higher or lower value is
3 Pyzik also recites improvements in preparation methods that are not
relevant to the issues before us (col. 3, ll. 27-46).
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