Electronics

As handheld electronics become an ever larger part of consumer lifestyles, it is important to know the material properties to help ensure that the electronics will be the best quality. At Ebatco, our scientists will provide a professional report in a timely manner so that you can have an overall understanding of your product. Our testing will ensure that the electronics produced will meet consumer expectations.

A lot of different technologies come together when creating and assembling electronics, so it is essential that the product be designed to meet the demands of the target user. Increasing battery life and designing thinner products leave the manufacturers thinking about what components should be included so customers can have the desired perks. At Ebatco, we have the capability to test electronics for a multitude of properties, including the mechanical properties, wear resistance, and more. Our team of scientists will perform the tests in order to provide precise data to better understand the capabilities of current electronics or future prototypes.

Micro- and nano- mechanical tests are crucial to assuring that manufactured electronics will meet required criteria. At Ebatco, our professional team can test failure analysis, coating adhesion, material properties of a touch screen display, solder wettability of semiconductor chips, and more. These tests can help guarantee production of the best electronics in a constantly expanding industry. If you have any questions about the services or instrumentation available at Ebatco, feel free to call or email and a member of our team will be able to further assist you.

Applications

For more information please read our application notes:
SEM EDS Analysis of Bicentennial Penny Patina
Advancing, Receding and Roll-off Angle Measurements through Sliding Angle Method
Coating Scratch Resistance and Interfacial Adhesion Evaluation through Nanoscratch
Density and Surface Tension of Ink
Fracture Failure Analysis of Steel Wire
Glass Transition Temperature Measurements Using Dynamic Mechanical Analysis
Interfacial adhesion evaluation of paint coating on Pepsi Can through Scratch Testing
Light Load Reciprocating Wear of Computer Hard Disk Coatings
Micro Contact Angle Measurements on Single Particles, Filaments and Patterned Surfaces
Nanoindentation for hardness and elastic modulus measurements at nanoscale
Optical Inspection and Profiling of Defects on a Coated Wafer Surface
Scratch Failure Characteristics of DLC Coating on M2 Steel
SEM EDS Analysis on Scratch Failure of PTFE Coated Stainless Steel Guide Wire
Wear Resistance Evaluation and Debris Generation Study through Nano Wear
Zeta Potentials of Solid Surfaces

Light Load Reciprocating Wear of Computer Hard Disk Coatings

With computers having a large role in daily life, it is important to protect the hard drive as much as possible to minimize the risk of data loss. Hard drive manufacturers implement techniques such as take-off and landing zones for the head slider as well as magnetic locks for the actuator arm to help protect the hard drive. Even with such precautions, unexpected shock or vibration can cause the head to contact the hard drive platter, causing damage to magnetic recording layer on the disk. To prevent this, lubrication and diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings are applied to the hard disk surface to protect the magnetic layer from crash damages and frictional wear.

Because both the lubrication layer and DLC coatings are on the order of tens of nanometers in thickness and the head slider is a very small and light device, thus, wear study of these coatings requires light contact loads and high sliding speeds. Ebatco NAT Lab’s TS-501 tribometer made by Kyowa is capable of carrying out such a challenging task. The TS-501 can operate under 5-500gf load at a speed up to 100mm/second in order to create a reciprocating wear track on the platter surface. The reciprocating wear test may be performed up to hundreds or even thousands of cycles along a single wear track. With the ability to use wear counterparts of different contact formats as well as to perform tests at light loads and a large number of cycles, the TS-501 is an excellent choice for evaluating the wear resistance and durability of the hard disk platter.

The data presented here is for a hard disk platter that underwent reciprocating wear tests using the TS-501. A sapphire ball of 3mm in diameter was used as the wear counterpart. A 10 mm stroke length, 20 gf load, 5mm/second sliding speed, and 700 or 1000 cycles were used for the wear tests. After the wear tests, three segments from each wear track were analyzed using scanning probe microscopy in order to determine the cross-sectional area of the wear tracks. From the cross sectional area and the stroke length, the wear volumes were determined. Knowing the wear volume, force and total sliding distance yields the wear rate of the hard disk platter under the selected wear testing conditions.

As exemplified above, light load, high speed reciprocating wear analysis is a very useful and effective approach to evaluate wear resistance and durability of ultra thin films, coatings and bulk material surfaces used in applications where contact force is low and sliding speed is high. These applications may include electrical switches, printer heads, printing papers, flooring materials, touch screens on electronics, and light load ball bearings.