Scrutiny of Glass-to-Metal Seals Yields Better Insulation Seal

摘要

Components housed in stainless steel for protection against the extreme environments in aerospace, defense and some industrial processes require paths for electricity to power them and communicate with them. Those paths in turn need a reliable insulation seal to prevent contact with the metal case that could short out the power and communication lines. Strong bonds between materials for hermetic seals are crucial, and researchers at Sandia National Laboratories continue to advance how that is done. Typically, the material used to isolate electrical paths is glass or a glass-ceramic composite. Work by Steve Dai, principal investigator for a project on bonding glass-ceramic to stainless steel, aims to develop fundamental science in materials and processing for high performance glass-ceramic-to-metal seals.