Abstract: A method for producing a sintered copper article for craft or decorative use made of copper or a copper alloy which can be sintered in the air by using a general heating furnace, and a plastic copper containing clay compound are provided. The method for producing the sintered copper article for craft or decorative use of the present invention comprises the steps of forming a shaped copper object using the copper containing clay compound which includes at least one kind of a powder selected from a copper powder or a copper alloy powder that contains copper in 50 wt % or more together with an organic binder, and subsequently sintering the shaped copper object, thereby to obtain a shaped copper sinter. Herein, the mean particle diameter of the powder included in the copper containing clay compound is restricted to 10 ?m or less, whereby the shaped copper sinter is obtained by sintering the shaped copper object in the air.

Abstract: Provided are a method for producing a decorative metallic article having a wood grain metal pattern and the decorative metallic article having the wood grain metal pattern; the decorative metallic article comprising a sintered copper part produced by sintering a plastic copper containing clay compound, and a sintered silver part produced by sintering a plastic silver containing clay compound.

Abstract: An improved elastic member (24) for micromechanical devices (12). The micromechanical device (12) includes a stationary member (28) and a moving member (26) which are connected together by a elastic member (24). Because of repeated and frequent movement of the moving member (26), the elastic member (24) can become permanently flexed or deformed, resulting in poor operation of the device. Aluminum alloys are formed to include oxygen, in combination with nitrogen if desired, to obtain a film with dramatically reduced load relaxation characteristics. Oxygen is added to an Argon sputter gas during deposition, and an amorphous film is produced.

Abstract: An electrically addressable, integrated, monolithic, micromirror device (10) is formed by the utilization of sputtering techniques, including various metal and oxide layers, photoresists, liquid and plasma etching, plasma stripping and related techniques and materials. The device (10) includes a selectively electrostatically deflectable mass or mirror (12) of supported by one or more beams (18) formed by sputtering and selective etching. The beams (18) are improved by being constituted of an impurity laden titanium-tungsten layer (52) with an impurity such as nitrogen, which causes the beams to have lattice constant different from TiW. The improved beams (18) exhibit increased strength, and decreased relaxation and creep.