In September, we announced our exclusive licensing agreement with The Ohio State University to commercialize a patent-pending deposition technique developed by faculty member Dr. Fengyan Yang. The innovative technology is based on off-axis sputtering and Dr. Yang's research group has demonstrated how the new process can be used to grow a broad variety of epitaxial films that have a crystalline quality that rivals more expensive processes, such as molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The new capabilities developed at the university will meet the growing demand in physics, chemistry, and material science for entirely new classes of materials in both academic and industrial research and development.

PVD Products teamed up with Tin Model, LLC to explain the connection between magnetron sputtering processes and Valentine's Day. Thin-film materials deposited via sputtering processes can vary widely both in properties and in thickness distribution. This is partially because vapor plumes emanated from magnetron sputtering sources can take various shapes, depending on the design of the magnetron, the material, the state of erosion and other influencers.