Ex parte Yamaguchi

Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences

Sep 17, 1998

07891123 (B.P.A.I. Sep. 17, 1998)

Application for patent filed June 1, 1992.1
1
THIS OPINION WAS NOT WRITTEN FOR PUBLICATION
The opinion in support of the decision being entered today
(1) was not written for publication in a law journal and
(2) is not binding precedent of the Board.
Paper No. 21
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
__________
BEFORE THE BOARD OF PATENT APPEALS
AND INTERFERENCES
__________
Ex parte ATSUMI YAMAGUCHI
__________
Appeal No. 95-1750
Application 07/891,1231
__________
ON BRIEF
__________
Before GARRIS, PAK, and WARREN, Administrative Patent Judges.
GARRIS, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
This is a decision on an appeal from the refusal of the
examiner to allow claims 1 through 9 as amended subsequent to
Appeal No. 95-1750
Application No. 07/891,123
2
the final rejection. These are all of the claims in the
application.
The subject matter on appeal relates to a method for
developing a positive photoresist with a developer comprising
a quaternary ammonium hydroxide and a quaternary ammonium
halogenide. A photoresist of this method has an unexposed
portion dissolution rate with a 2.38 weight percent aqueous
solution of tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide of about 1 D/sec or
less. Further details of this appealed subject matter are set
forth in representative independent claim 1 which reads as
follows:
1. A method for developing a positive photoresist,
comprising providing a positive photoresist having an
unexposed portion dissolution rate with a 2.38 wt % aqueous
solution of tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide of about 1 D/sec or
less, image-wise exposing the positive photoresist to an
activating radiation to form a latent image, and removing the
exposed portions of the positive photoresist with a developer
comprising a quaternary ammonium hydroxide and a quaternary
ammonium halogenide of the formula
wherein R , R , R and R are selected from the group consisting1 2 3 4
of ethyl, methyl, hydroxymethyl, hydroxyethyl and hydrogen,
Appeal No. 95-1750
Application No. 07/891,123
3
and X is a halogen atom, the quaternary ammonium hydroxide
being included in an amount sufficient to dissolve an exposed
portion of the photoresist and the quaternary ammonium
halogenide being included in an amount sufficient to improve
the selectivity in dissolution between an exposed portion and
an unexposed portion of the photoresist by the quaternary
ammonium hydroxide.
The references relied upon by the examiner as evidence of
obviousness are:
Hilhorst et al. 3,607,271 Sep. 21, 1971
(Hilhorst)
Guild 4,423,138 Dec. 27, 1983
Tanaka et al. 4,873,177 Oct. 10, 1989
(Tanaka)
Kato et al. 4,914,006 Apr. 3, 1990
(Kato)
Claims 1 through 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
being unpatentable over Guild, Kato, Hilhorst and Tanaka.
We refer to the brief and reply brief and to the answer
for a complete exposition of the opposing viewpoints expressed
by the appellant and the examiner concerning this rejection.
OPINION
For the reasons set forth below, this rejection cannot be
sustained.
Appeal No. 95-1750
Application No. 07/891,123
4
Guild discloses a method for developing a positive
photoresist with a developer solution comprising the here
claimed ingredients. However, patentee fails to disclose that
his photoresist possesses the here claimed unexposed portion
dissolution rate. With regard to this infirmity, the examiner
appears to have adopted two distinct positions.
First, the examiner seems to argue that the compositions
of the appellant's and Guild's photoresist may be the same and
accordingly that the here claimed dissolution rate will be an
inherent characteristic of patentee's photoresist. As
correctly indicated by the appellant, the dissolution rates of
patentee's control examples (e.g., see control 1, control 2
and control 14 in Tables II and III) are far above the maximum
dissolution rate defined by appealed claim 1. In light of
this circumstance, an inherency argument of the type under
consideration is unreasonable and therefore unpersuasive. Ex
parte Skinner, 2 USPQ2d 1788, 1789 (Bd. Pat. App. & Int.
1986).
Alternatively, it is the examiner's basic position that it
would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art
to use Guild's developer composition for developing the types
Appeal No. 95-1750
Application No. 07/891,123
5
of positive photoresists which have dissolution rates within
the here claimed range. Highly relevant to this issue of
obviousness is the appellant's point that the additive of
patentee's developer is explicitly described as protecting the
unexposed portion of the photoresist from developer attack and
that the unexposed portions of the photoresist in Guild's
examples exhibit relatively high dissolution rates when
exposed to developers sans additive. Because the photoresists
defined by appealed claim 1 possess extremely low unexposed
portion dissolution rates, no basis exists for believing that
the unexposed portions of these photoresists require the
protection afforded by Guild's additive. Stated otherwise,
the examiner's obviousness conclusion is not well founded
because the problem solved by patentee's additive (i.e.,
protection of the unexposed portions from developer attack) is
not exhibited by the photoresists under consideration wherein
the unexposed portions are not subject to developer attack
since they have such low dissolution rates.
For the above stated reasons and because the deficiencies
of Guild are not supplied by the other applied references, we
cannot sustain the examiner's section 103 rejection of
Appeal No. 95-1750
Application No. 07/891,123
6
appealed claims 1 through 9 as being unpatentable over Guild,
Kato, Hilhorst and Tanaka.
The decision of the examiner is reversed.
REVERSED
Bradley R. Garris )
Administrative Patent Judge )
)
)
)
Chung K. Pak ) BOARD OF
PATENT
Administrative Patent Judge ) APPEALS AND
) INTERFERENCES
Appeal No. 95-1750
Application No. 07/891,123
7
)
)
Charles F. Warren )
Administrative Patent Judge )
tdc
Appeal No. 95-1750
Application No. 07/891,123
8
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