ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,374,518, issued on July 29, was assigned to Moxtek Inc. (Orem, Utah).
"Planar filament with focused, central electron emission" was invented by Kasey Otho Greenland (South Jordan, Utah) and Todd S. Parker (Kaysville, Utah).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A planar filament for an x-ray tube can have a different cross-sectional area at different locations. In regions of smaller cross-sectional area, there can be higher current density, and thus increased heating and higher temperature of the wire. In regions of larger cross-sectional area, there can be lower current density, and thus decreased heating of the wire. Regions of larger cross-sec...