We recently worked with a company called Lambda Technologies who has helped by providing a new solution to activating NanoFoil®: microwaves. Shown in the picture here is the MC3100 VFM. (The VFM stands for variable frequency microwave)
As you may know by now, activating NanoFoil is all about energy input. Microwaves are another way to provide that energy to initiate the reaction. Currently customers use laser, heat, and electricity to activate NanoFoil. Unless the foil is accessible, activation can be very challenging and sometimes impossible – this is the perfect time to explore using microwave technology.
Added benefits to microwave activation are that is non-contact and non-line of sight. Microwave and laser activation can both be accomplished without contact probes, which can wear out after thousands of 1,500C reactions. Even more interesting though, is non-line of sight activation. NanoFoil can be activated with microwaves through different materials. Heatspreader/heatsink applications are very good candidates for this.
We still have much to learn about how microwaves work with NanoFoil, I consider this is an exciting new application.
If you’d like to explore microwave energy as a way to activate NanoFoil in your application, please contact us at AskUs@Indium.com.