Welding in solid state

The importance of the Solid State Processes (SSP) has increased in the last decade due to the industry demands of improved properties of joined/surfaced materials, combined with cost reduction and energy saving. New and/or micro-scale solid state processed materials are used by aerospace, automotive and electrotechnics industry. Nowadays, classic SSP are mainly applied to light materials, but progresses were also reported in steels. In this field, the tools design, the technology and practical techniques surpassed the fundamental approach of the materials solid state processing. The SSP parameters evaluation is based on different experiments, approaching the material flow in the large plastic deformation domain. The paper approaches the solid state welding/joining and surface processing. The envisaged SSP are solid state joining processes as Cold Welding (butt and spot welding), Friction Stir Welding – FSW, and surface processing, Friction Stir Processing - FSP. Therefore, the investigation targeted the deformation and flow pattern of the parent metal in case of cold welding and FSW/FSP, processes parameters evaluation and correlation, local analysis of the material structural transformations, and material hardening

Solid state bistable power switch

Tin and copper provide high current and switching time capabilities for high-current resettable fuses. They show the best performance for trip current and degree of reliability, and have low coefficients of thermal expansion

Solid-state circuit development

Silver-cadmium battery sensing and switching circuit design for satellite electric power system

Solid state variable time delay

Variable time delay line does not require use of a magnetic field to control a time delay, and can both amplify and delay a signal. Device is inexpensive and space saving, it does not require mecanically moving components, eliminating detrimental vibrations in a sensitive environment

Logic controlled solid state switchgear

Logic controlled solid state circuit breakers and power transfer switches have been designed and built to demonstrate their use for 270 V dc power systems. This switchgear provides remote operation, automatic current level, and operates several orders of magnitude faster with much greater accuracy of response than conventional switchgear

Solid-state dewetting on curved substrates

Based on the thermodynamic variation to the free energy functional, we propose a sharp-interface model for simulating solid-state dewetting of thin films on rigid curved substrates in two dimensions. This model describes the interface evolution which occurs through surface diffusion-controlled mass transport and contact point migration along the curved substrate. Furthermore, the surface energy anisotropy is easily included into the model, and the contact point migration is explicitly described by the relaxed contact angle boundary condition. We implement the mathematical model by a semi-implicit parametric finite element method to study several interesting phenomena, such as "small" particle migration on curved substrates and templated solid-state dewetting on a pre-patterned substrate. Based on ample numerical simulations, we demonstrate that, the migration velocity of a "small" solid particle is proportional to the substrate curvature gradient $\hat{\kappa}'$ and inversely proportional to the square root of the area of the particle $\sqrt{A}$, and it decreases when the isotropic Young angle $\theta_i$ increases. In addition, we also observe four periodic categories of dewetting on a pre-patterned sinusoidal substrate. Our approach can provide a convenient and powerful tool to exploring how to produce well-organized nanoparticles by making use of template-assisted solid-state dewetting.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure

Electrodes for solid state devices

The invention relates to coated metal powders and to dispersions of such powders in liquid vehicles forming screenable, sinterable pastes for use in forming electrodes on photovoltaic devices. The primary nickel or copper metal particles are provided with a carrier of lower melting sintering metals such as 1-20% by weight, of a non-oxidizing metal such as lead or tin. The powdered metal systems operate on the basis of fusing together by way of eutectic alloying. As the paste is heated during firing the organic binder is first vaporized. An eutectic of the base metal (copper) and coating (tin) forms at the intersections of the base metal grains. This eutectic dissolves the grains and as the temperature is raised above the eutectic temperature, more of the base metal is dissolved. While the temperature is held at the higher value, the much smaller amount of sintering metal disappears as the eutectic dissolves and diffuses into the base metal until the composition of the eutectic is so enriched with base metal that it no longer has the eutectic properties and it solidifies. In this high temperature solidification, the base metal grains became thoroughly alloyed together and will not separate at the eutectic temperature (a lower temperature than their solidification by diffusion)