PRECIOUS METALS ARE MEMS' BEST FRIEND, BUT THE TINY TRINKETS DON'T ALWAYS BEHAVE
By Rosemary Clandos
Small Times West Coast Correspondent
smalltimes.com
The days when precious metals were used strictly to make jewelry are long gone. Now, tiny amounts of the costly material are used in MEMS sensors for the aerospace industry and brain probes for patients with Parkinson’s disease. Gold, platinum, iridium, titanium, and palladium are used in fabricating and manufacturing MEMS, microsystems, and nanoscale devices because their noble qualities make them less corrosive and more durable. They don’t tarnish or oxidize easily, and they are resistant to chemical attacks so they don’t dissolve readily in strong biofluids or in simple bases, acids and solvents
At California Fine Wire, a company that supplies universities and other institutions around the world with minimicron wire made from precious metals, President Michael Greenelsh said that within the last year, the company has seen a 33 percent sales increase in silver, 65 percent sales increase in platinum, a 75 percent increase in platinum with 10 percent iridium.
The majority of the wire is used for sensors in the aerospace, aircraft, auto industries. It is also used for biomed devices such as cochlear implants -- devices that send a signal through the audio nerve to the brain to enable deaf people to hear well enough to talk on a telephone. |
