US Patent Issued to Blue Origin Manufacturing on Aug. 4 for "Solar heating for thin film evaporation and directional solidification" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,698,557, issued on Aug. 4, was assigned to Blue Origin Manufacturing LLC (Huntsville, Ala.).

"Solar heating for thin film evaporation and directional solidification" was invented by Alexander Imbault (Sierra Madre, Calif.) and Jonathan Grandidier (Pasadena, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Configurations for solar heating and processing of a material, such as a metal or metalloid, are presented. Such processing may have an end-goal of purifying the material or depositing the material as a thin film on a substrate. The use of solar heating allows these processes to occur without electricity, which may be a scarce resource on the moon....