ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,275,094, issued on April 15, was assigned to FUJI ELECTRIC Co. LTD. (Kawasaki, Japan).

"Solder joint" was invented by Hirohiko Watanabe (Hachioji, Japan), Shunsuke Saito (Hachioji, Japan) and Takeshi Yokoyama (Matsumoto, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "In an example, use of a solder joint may include a solder joint layer having a melted solder material containing Sn as a main component and further containing Ag and/or Sb and/or Cu; and a joined body including a Ni-P-Cu plating layer on a surface of the joined body in contact with the solder joint layer. The Ni-P-Cu plating layer may contain Ni as a main component and may contain 0.5%...