ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,387,927, issued on Aug. 12, was assigned to Applied Materials Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.).

"Deposition of boron films" was invented by Yung-Chen Lin (Gardena, Calif.), Chi-I Lang (Cupertino, Calif.) and Ho-yung David Hwang (Cupertino, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods for depositing boron-containing films on a substrate are described. The substrate is exposed to a boron precursor and a plasma to form the boron-containing film (e.g., elemental boron, boron oxide, boron carbide, boron silicide, boron nitride). The exposures can be sequential or simultaneous. The boron-containing films are selectively deposited on one material (e...