Ex Parte Meltzer et al

Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences

Aug 23, 2010

10373350 (B.P.A.I. Aug. 23, 2010)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
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BEFORE THE BOARD OF PATENT APPEALS
AND INTERFERENCES
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Ex parte MICHAEL P. MELTZER,
CHRISTOPHER P. STEFFANI, and RAY A. GONFIOTTI
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Appeal 2009-011351
Application 10/373,350
Technology Center 1700
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Before BEVERLY A. FRANKLIN, LINDA M. GAUDETTE, and
MARK NAGUMO, Administrative Patent Judges.

NAGUMO, Administrative Patent Judge.

DECISION ON APPEAL1

1 The two-month time period for filing an appeal or commencing a civil
action, as recited in 37 C.F.R. § 1.304, or for filing a request for rehearing,
as recited in 37 C.F.R. § 41.52, begins to run from the “MAIL DATE”
(paper delivery mode) or the “NOTIFICATION DATE” (electronic delivery
mode) shown on the PTOL-90A cover letter attached to this decision.
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Application 10/373,350

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A. Introduction2
Michael P. Meltzer, Christopher P. Steffani, and Ray A. Gonfiotti
(“Meltzer”) timely appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the final rejection3
of claims 1-3. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6. We REVERSE.
The subject matter on appeal relates to printed wiring boards having
alternating layers of copper, nickel, and layers of additional specified metals.
The 350 Specification indicates that the additional metals may be alloyed
with the copper or the nickel, or alloyed with themselves, or they may be
present as distinct layers of metals. (Spec. 18 [0035].) When alloyed with
the copper or nickel, the additional metals are said to enhance conductivity,
strength, or corrosion resistance. (Id. at 16 [0032].) All of the metals are
present in a single plating bath. (Id.) The copper is plated under low
reduction potential, high agitation conditions (id. at 16-17 [0032]) to yield
conductive trace layers on the order of 12 microns thick (id. at 13 [0023]).
The nickel is plated under high reduction potential, low agitation conditions
(id. at 17 [0033]) to yield an etch resist layer of nickel about 1 micron thick
that contains a percentage of copper and provides a good solderable surface
that need not be stripped (id. at 11 [0018]-[0019]). Because solder

2 Application 10/373,350, Processing a Printed Wiring Board by Single
Bath Electrodeposition, filed 24 February 2003 as a Division of an
application filed 16 March 2001, now U.S. Pat. 6,547,946, claiming the
benefit of a provisional application filed 10 April 2000. The specification is
referred to as the “350 Specification,” and is cited as “Spec.” The real party
in interest is listed as The Regents of the University of California and the
United States of America as represented by the United States Department of
Energy. (Appeal Brief, filed 8 August 2007 (“Br.”), 3.)
3 Office action mailed 2 April 2007 (“Final Rejection”; cited as “FR”).
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Application 10/373,350

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connections can be made to the nickel layer, hot air solder leveling
(“HASL”), said to be the most common finish coat on printed wiring boards
and a main use of lead (Pb) in their manufacture, need not be used in the
plating process or in the manufacturing steps that follow. (Id.
at 11 [0019]-12 [0020].) The layered composites are said to provide
materials of high tensile strength. (Id. at 17 [0034].)
Representative Claim 1 reads:
1. A printed wiring board consisting of a printed wiring board
produced by the method of
processing a printed wiring board by electrodeposition,
by implementing initial processing steps on said printed
wiring board including drilling holes, plating holes, and
depositing image circuitry,
by utilizing a single bath having an absence of lead and
containing very dilute solutions of nickel and copper
with said very dilute solutions of nickel and copper
being sufficiently dilute to insure the deposition of
distinct layers of copper having a thickness on the
order of 12 microns and the deposition of distinct
layers of nickel having a thickness on the order of
thicknesses of 1 micron
and having additional metals at least one of which
is manganese, chromium, zinc, iron, cobalt,
cadmium, tin, arsenic, antimony, bismuth, gold, or
silver,
by plating copper having a thickness on the order
of 12 microns on said printed wiring board from said
single bath containing nickel and copper,
said plating copper including providing a low
reduction potential in said single bath and
providing high agitation conditions in said single
bath,
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by plating nickel having a thickness on the order of
thicknesses of 1 micron on said printed wiring board
from said single bath containing nickel and copper,
said plating nickel including providing a high
reduction potential in said single bath and
providing low agitation conditions in said single
bath,
by building alternating very thin layers of nickel having a
thickness on the order of thicknesses of 1 micron and
copper having a thickness on the order of 12 microns on
said printed wiring board by
repeatedly building layers of nickel having a
thickness on the order of thicknesses of 1 micron
and copper having a thickness on the order of 12
microns on said printed wiring board from said
single bath containing nickel and copper,
by plating additional metals at least one of which is
manganese, chromium, zinc, iron, cobalt, cadmium, tin,
arsenic, antimony, bismuth, gold, or silver, and
by implementing final processing steps on said printed
wiring board including etching, cleaning and labeling,
wherein said method of processing a printed wiring board by
electrodeposition produces said printed wiring board consisting
of:
alternating very thin layers of
nickel and
copper and
additional metals at least one of which is
manganese, chromium, zinc, iron, cobalt,
cadmium, tin, arsenic, antimony, bismuth, gold, or
silver, and
image circuitry;
wherein said layers of copper have a thickness on
the order of 12 microns and
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said layers of nickel have a thickness on the order
of thicknesses of 1 micron
and said printed wiring board has an absence of lead.
(Claims App., Br. 16-17; indentation, paragraphing, and emphasis added.)
The Examiner has maintained the following ground of rejection:4
Claims 1-3 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) in view of
Nee5 or Lasbmore.6
B. Discussion
Findings of fact throughout this Opinion are supported by a
preponderance of the evidence of record.
The claimed printed circuit boards have at least alternating layers of
copper, nickel, and a layer of at least one other named metal.
Nee describes, in Example V, on which the Examiner relies (Ans. 3),
composites of nickel-molybdenum alloys in which layers of very fine
grained deposits alternate with layers of larger grained deposits. (Nee,
col. 10, ll. 44-54; see also the general description at col. 3, ll. 34-39.) The
Examiner’s finding that Nee describes Ni-Mo alloy layers alternating with
copper layers is not supported by credible evidence.
Lasbmore describes multilayer copper-nickel alloys wherein each
layer has a composition distinct from its neighbors. (Lasbmore col. 4,

4 Examiner’s Answer mailed 14 November 2007. (“Ans.”)
5 Chin-Cheng Nee and Rolf Weil, Multilayer Pulsed-Current
Electrodeposition Process, U.S. Patent 4,869,971 (1989).
6 David S. Lasbmore and Moshe P. Dariel, Method for the Production of
Predetermined Concentration Graded Alloys, U.S. Patent 5,320,719 (1994).
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ll. 15-38.) The Examiner correctly finds that Lasbmore is silent regarding
layers thicknesses and “about the plating solution having additional metals
as in claim 1.” (Ans. 4, 2d para.) The Examiner’s reliance on Nee for
additional metals (id., last para.) is not helpful because Nee does not
describe multilayers comprising three metals; nor does Nee describe copper
or nickel layers having the required thickness.
Because the failure to teach or suggest a single required element of a
claim negates obviousness, the rejections of record must be REVERSED.
C. Order
We REVERSE the rejection of claims 1-3 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) in
view of Nee or Lasbmore.
REVERSED

kmm

EDDIE E. SCOTT
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