US Patent Issued to OERLIKON SURFACE SOLUTIONS, PFAFFIKON on Aug. 26 for "Cathodic arc source" (Swiss, Austrian Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,398,457, issued on Aug. 26, was assigned to OERLIKON SURFACE SOLUTIONS AG, PFAFFIKON (Pfaffikon SZ, Switzerland).

"Cathodic arc source" was invented by Siegfried Krassnitzer (Feldkirch, Austria), Jurg Hagmann (Sax, Switzerland) and Andreas Peter Treuholz (Bad Ragaz, Switzerland).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A cathodic arc evaporation apparatus including a target which has a target surface including an active surface from where material can be evaporated in a cathodic arc process; a confinement surrounding an outer border of the target surface; an anode having an electron receiving surface, the anode encompassing at least one of the targ...