ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,385,123, issued on Aug. 12, was assigned to Dyson Technology Ltd. (Wiltshire, Great Britain).

"Sputter deposition apparatus and method" was invented by Michael Edward Rendall (Newbury, Great Britain) and Robert Ian Joseph Gruar (Swindon, Great Britain).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Certain examples described herein relate to a sputter deposition apparatus including a guiding member to guide a substrate in a conveyance direction, a plasma source to generate a plasma, and a magnet arrangement. The magnet arrangement is configured to confine the plasma within the apparatus to a pre-treatment zone, within which the substrate is exposed to th...