Charting the Evolution of Materials Science
With more than a century of R&D in material science, one supplier recounts the rise of a new generation of safer, lighter, more powerful materials for today’s interconnect and electronics designs.
Materials science is the foundation of electronic designs. The properties of materials — such as conductivity, flexibility, strength, and thermal stability — are crucial in determining the capabilities and limitations of electronic devices. The development of new materials for electronic components plays a fundamental role in innovation, boosting performance, efficiency, and functionality, as well as contributing to the safety and environmental impact of electronics. In the context of custom interconnect development, new materials give designers more options.
Materials science has brought advancements to every aspect of electronic design. New materials with high dielectric constants or piezoelectric properties contribute to better capacitors, sensors, and energy storage solutions. The development of flexible, stretchable materials is enabling the creation of next-generation electronics, such as wearable devices, flexible displays, and medical implants. Advancements in semiconductor materials, like silicon and its alternatives, have enabled faster and smaller transistors, leading to more powerful and energy-efficient processors. Additionally, materials with superior thermal conductivity help manage heat in high-performance electronics, improving reliability and longevity. As we continue into the era of portable devices and e-mobility, materials science is essential in advancing battery technology, enabling higher energy densities, faster charging times, and safer batteries.
In the development of new connectors and cables, materials science is enabling the creation of highly conductive, durable, and heat-resistant materials, improving signal integrity and longevity. Innovations in flexible and lightweight materials also allow for more adaptable, space-efficient cable designs that meet the demands of modern electronics and industrial applications.
We asked Mike Gedeon, customer technical services manager at Materion, to give us some insights into new materials and research in this area. Materion has been a leader in materials science for nearly a century. Brush Laboratories was founded in 1921 by Charles Brush, Jr. and Dr. C. Baldwin Sawyer. A number of startups came out of Brush Laboratories, including the Brush Beryllium Company, ounded in 1931, which is now known as Materion. Materion will officially celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2031.
The company’s long history means Materion has been part of the evolution of electronics materials since the beginning. Tell me about your R&D group and how the company stays ahead of change.
Mike Gedeon: Materion has always focused on developing the highest performance materials for the most challenging applications, and we are constantly looking ahead to ensure our products are aligned with the latest market and technology trends. We partner with our customers and design engineers at OEMs and tier suppliers to find out what their biggest challenges are currently and what they will be in the next few years. We use this voice of the customer data to fuel our innovation pipeline and use a stage-gate process to ensure that we are working on the right materials to solve the right problems. Many new design concepts could not move forward without materials innovations that push performance properties to new levels. For connector materials specifically, property requirements have become more challenging over the years with higher operating temperatures, smaller form factors, higher voltages and currents, and other challenges.
Would it be fair to say that beryllium products have had a transformative impact on the company?
Beryllium and beryllium-containing products are the foundation that Materion was built on, and today these materials are core products in our portfolio. Beryllium materials offer unique property sets that are reliable in extreme environments, and they continue to fuel innovation and technological advancements in a wide range of demanding applications. For example, beryllium metal and our aluminum-beryllium composite have exceptional stiffness-to-weight and strength-to-weight ratios, making them ideal for aerospace components and space structures where weight is critical. Beryllium is transparent to X-rays and is used for windows in medical and industrial X-ray equipment, and its unique nuclear properties mean it is being used for the development of cleaner, safer nuclear reactors for medical, fission, and fusion technologies.
Copper-beryllium alloys have an exceptional combination of strength, conductivity, and formability, so they are used in high-reliability connectors, switches, and relays across all industries, as well as a range of other components in applications such as aircraft, satellites and spacecraft, vehicles, heavy construction and mining equipment, medical imaging equipment such as MRIs, industrial components such as plastic mold tooling, semiconductor test equipment, resistance welding equipment, and oil and gas drilling components.
The rise of e-mobility is inspiring the development of new materials for a range of components and functions. How does Materion work with the automotive industry to meet these evolving needs?
The company has developed new materials for EV batteries and electrical systems with a lot of focus on general lightweighting and thermal management. We’re also working on materials for current collectors to support electrification of cars and aircraft, and we are producing materials for semiconductor packaging for all the sensors needed to support advanced driver-assistance systems as well as autonomous cars and aircraft. Other materials support more efficient powertrains and some have been shown to have excellent resistance to hydrogen embrittlement, making them excellent choices for use in hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines.
Materion’s Dovetail clad metal is used for lithium-ion battery cell electrodes and in busbars linking battery cells together.
How is AI influencing materials science?
AI is capable of simultaneously monitoring the effects and interactions of far more variables than any person can, so I personally see AI having a greater role in the future for developing new alloys, optimizing compositions, improving manufacturing processes, and enhancing material properties.
How have the company’s products contributed to space missions?
The use of beryllium metal dates back to the first space programs, including Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, and the space shuttles. On Mars, the Spirit, Opportunity, and Perseverance Rovers all used our aluminum-beryllium composite material. Perseverance also featured Materion electronic packaging material, and most U.S. Mars missions used our optical filters. Materion produced the 18 beryllium mirror segments that make up the primary mirror on the James Webb Space Telescope, as well as the telescope’s secondary and tertiary mirrors. We provided the precious metals that were sputtered onto the telescope’s solar panels and created optical filters for several instruments including the telescope’s NIRCam. Niobium C-103 alloy and ToughMet copper-nickel-tin alloy are used on commercial rockets. The future of the space industry involves ever more power for the rockets needed for public and private space exploration and eventual colonization, where existing materials are approaching their technical limits.
Materion produces metal matrix composites. AlBeMet MMC is a mixture of beryllium and aluminum SupremEX MMCs feature silicon-carbide particles embedded in an aluminum alloy matrix. AyontEX materials are made by mixing aluminum alloy powder with silicon powder. (Shown: Heat sinks made from AlBeMet)
What are metal matrix products?
Alloys are formed when you melt and blend several metals together. The key feature of alloys is that all the alloying elements dissolve into the base metal. If you have two materials that do not dissolve into each other, you can combine them to form a composite. This is usually done by blending fine powders of two or more materials together, then compacting and sintering them into a solid. If the majority of the composite is a metal or metal alloy, it is considered a metal matrix composite (MMC), as opposed to a ceramic-based ceramic matrix composite or a plastic matrix composite. Reinforcement particles in composites are typically metals, ceramics, glass, graphite, etc.
The Chips Act and other initiatives have put the focus on semiconductor production. How is Materion involved in chip development?
Materion produces electronic packages, packaging materials, lids, getters, etc. We focus on thermal management of high-power semiconductor devices, which produce a lot of heat that needs to be removed. This is particularly important in processors enabling 5G and 6G communications, autonomous vehicles and those with advanced driver-assistance systems, etc. Meanwhile, Materion’s lightweight materials are used for accurate positioning of front-end production equipment, while copper beryllium’s conductivity, strength and resistance to high temperatures have long made it the material of choice for test probes and contacts in burn-in and test socket equipment.
How does additive manufacturing fit into Materion’s research?
Materion has an additive manufacturing laboratory at its Elmore, Ohio, facility. The lab is focused on developing manufacturing processes, appropriate safe handling procedures, and specifications for additive manufacturing of beryllium and beryllium-containing materials.
What other trends are influencing materials science?
Materion is focused on meeting materials needs for the emerging technologies transforming mobility, connectivity, and clean energy applications. For decades, we have made copper-beryllium alloys used to make high-reliability connectors, including coaxial connectors for mobile phone towers, for repeater housings in undersea fiberoptic communication lines, and in safety-critical connectors – basically anywhere reliability is critical or where repair is costly, difficult, or dangerous. Materion is also making materials for electronic packaging of semiconductor chips to enable faster processing, as well as optical materials for virtual and augmented reality products.
Materion’s alloys are used in bushings and bearings for wind turbines and connectors for solar panels. Beryllium metal and beryllium oxide ceramic reflect and moderate the neutrons in new types of nuclear reactors, both large and small. Materion thin film coatings are used on solar cells and architectural glass. Inorganic chemical compounds and clad materials are employed in next generation batteries that facilitate longer ranges, faster charging, and enhanced safety.
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