ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,258,660, issued on March 25, was assigned to RTX Corp. (Farmington, Conn.).
"Vapor deposition apparatus and method" was invented by Erik M. Nielsen (Middletown, N.Y.) and Peter F. Gero (Portland, Conn.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vapor deposition apparatus includes a chamber configured to operate at vacuum and at least one crucible in the chamber. The crucible is configured to receive an ingot, a feeder operable to move the ingot with respect to the at least one crucible, and a heater in the chamber and configured to heat a hot zone between the at least one crucible and the feeder. A method for vapor deposition is also disclosed."...