Indium Solder and Sealing
Indium Solder and Sealing Products
No other metal is as versatile as indium metal. In its various forms it can be used for:
- Sealing in cryogenic applications - stays malleable and ductile below -150°C
- Soldering or fusing applications - melts at temperatures ranging from 6.5°C to 310°C
- High-end device cooling - reduces operating temperatures by up to 10°C
Benefits of Using Indium for Solder and Sealing
- Indium is ductile and malleable which allows it to deform and fill in the uneven microstructure of two mating parts, using only moderate pressure.
- This ductility and malleability is retained at cryogenic temperatures so that an assembly can maintain an effective seal, even in harsh environments.
- With a relatively high thermal conductivity of 86W/mK @ 85°C, indium is widely used in thermal management applications to dissipate the heat produced by electronic components.
- Indium compensates for different coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) when bonding dissimilar parts.
- Even in small percentages, indium can improve the thermal fatigue performance of solders used in electronics assembly.
- Several indium-containing alloys melt at temperatures less than 180°C, making them ideal for step soldering or applications that require lower reflow temperatures.
- Indium has a low vapor pressure, making it suitable for use in high vacuum applications.
- Indium alloys enable solders to withstand drop tests better than other low melting alloys.
Forms of Indium
The versatility of indium extends to many forms. Indium Corporation has developed the processes necessary to optimize the manufacturability of indium and its alloys into all of these forms:
- Ingot
- Shot
- Preforms
- Thermal interface materials
- Ribbon
- Foil
- Spheres
Indium Alloy Blog Posts
High Temperature (Braze Alloy) Sputtering Target Bonding, with NanoFoil®
In an earlier post I mentioned one of the presentations we gave at the 2013 SVC TechCon. The other presentation that our team delivered at the show (presented by Jacques Mateau) regarded another very interesting topic. The paper, High Temperature, Pb-Free, Metallic Sputtering Target Bonding…
Interesting Indium and Gallium Video
A visitor at our booth during the 2013 SVC (Society of Vacuum Coaters) conference suggested this video. In the video, a piece of indium is rubbed against a piece of gallium. The result is the formation of a room temperature alloy (75.5%Ga/24.5%In, mp: 15.7°C). One of the fun parts of my job is…
Drop Test Performance of SACM™ Pb-Free Solder Alloy
As I discussed in my last post, the industry has found that reducing the silver content of SAC alloys helps to improve its mechanical shock performance. However, low-Ag alloys such as SAC105 are still inferior to its Sn/Pb predecessors in some important ways. The graph below shows this…
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