US Patent Issued to Virginia Commonwealth University on June 23 for "Sputtering machines, substrate holders, and sputtering processes with magnetic biasing" (Virginia Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,662,731, issued on June 23, was assigned to Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, Va.).

"Sputtering machines, substrate holders, and sputtering processes with magnetic biasing" was invented by Santiago Vargas Giraldo (Richmond, Va.) and Carlos Eduardo Castano Londono (Richmond, Va.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Sputtering machines and substrate holders for such systems are described which include one or more magnets apart from the magnets typical of sputtering guns. The added magnets produce a magnetic field bias which is a new means for controlling depositional flux, ionization degree of a sputtered species, and microstructure pr...