Powdermet Inc., Euclid, Ohio, offers DiaBond, a family of engineered diamond powders specially designed to improve bonding in metallic matrices, including nickel-, cobalt-, copper-, and aluminum-based binders. DiaBond powders are comprised of diamond grains encapsulated in a 1-20 micron coating of cobalt, nickel, chromium, chromium carbide, tungsten, tungsten carbide, copper, aluminum, silicon, or rhenium.
Engineers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, report that networks of spherical gold nanoparticles embedded in polyurethane elastic materials may make the best stretchy conductors yet. The team discovered that the gold nanoparticles align into chain form, making excellent conductive pathways, when the polyurethane is stretched. Flexible electronics have a wide variety of possibilities, from bendable displays and batteries to medical implants that move with the body.
Applied Materials Inc., Santa Clara, Calif., announces the SEMVision G6, a suite of new defect review and classification technologies for its SEMVision family of products to accelerate time to yield for chip manufacturing at 1X-nm and beyond. The system combines 30% higher resolution and multi-dimensional imaging capabilities with the Purity Automatic Defect Classification system.
The Center for Heat Treating Excellence (CHTE) at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Mass., and one of its members, GM Global Powertrain Engineering, Pontiac, Mich., have been awarded a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a method that predicts heat transfer coefficients for metal castings during quenching and cooling operations, an innovation that will help make cast parts more durable.
The Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials, Germany, together with colleagues from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia, have developed a saw wire that can reduce kerf loss when cutting silicon wafers. In place of diamond-impregnated steel wires, the researchers use ultra-thin and extremely stable threads made of carbon nanotubes coated with diamond.
