Hybrid Plastics’ Receives a $100,000 R&D Grant from the National Science Foundation to develop Nanostructured Solder Materials
Fountain Valley, CA USA : Hybrid
Plastics, Inc. has received a $100,000 R&D Grant from the National Science foundation
(NSF) for the development of Nanostructured Solder Materials.
This competitive Phase I Small
Business Innovation Research [SBIR] award will allow the company to advance the
fundamental knowledge and service performance of lead-free electronic solders.Current
lead-free electronic solders are performance limited due to thermomechanical
fatigue and from heir microstructural instabilities which degrade electronic
performance over time. Hybrid Plastics expects o utilize its POSS ® building blocks as
nanoscopic chemical reinforcements to control both microstructural tability and
accumulated performance degradation. Such control will afford lead free solders
with higher strength, durability and dimensional stability in interconnects for
aerospace, automotive, consumer and micro-electromechanical (MEMS) systems.
To develop these more reliable and
durable lead free solders, Hybrid Plastics™ will team with the Department of
Chemical Engineering and Material Science at Michigan State University. Control
of these metal alloy characteristics will afford insights into real-world
solutions for metal fatigue, creep and service life issues which plague
interconnects worldwide in commercial and military electronics and MEMS. POSS ® [Polyhedral
Oligomeric Silsesquioxanes] is a revolutionary new Nanotechnology based on
silicon-derived building blocks that provide nanometer-scale control to dramatically
improve the thermal and mechanical properties of traditional polymers while
offering easy incorporation using existing manufacturing protocols. These
compounds have an average diameter of just 1.5 nanometers, or billionth of a
meter. POSS ® nanomaterials can be used both as direct replacements for hydrocarbon based
materials or as low-density performance additives to traditional plastics. They
release no VOCs, and, thereby, produce no odor or air pollution. They are
biocompatible, recyclable, non-flammable, and competitively priced with
traditional polymer feedstocks. POSS ® Nanostructured ® materials can be readily incorporated
into virtually any existing polymer system through blending, grafting or
copolymerization.
These POSS ® nanobuilding-blocks were
hailed by R&D magazine as globally one of the 100 most technologically
significant new products for the year 2000. More recently, Hybrid Plastics was
one of five finalists for the Small Times Magazine’s 2002 Best of Small Tech
Award for its POSS ®
Nanostructured ® materials. The Small
Times Magazine Best of Small Tec h Awards recognize the best people, products and
companies in nanotechnology, MEMS and Microsystems globally.
Hybrid
Plastics, Inc.
18237 Mt. Baldy Circle
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
Tel: 714.962.0303
Fax: 714.962.4024