Abstract: An example palladium-based alloy includes a palladium-copper-silver alloy. Such an alloy may include palladium at about 50-57 weight percent (“wt %”), copper at about 35-42 wt %, and silver at about 3-7 wt %. The alloy may also include at least one of rhenium, zinc, gallium, indium, or any of the other elements disclosed herein. For instance, the alloy may include at least 0.5-2 wt % of at least one of rhenium, zinc, gallium, or indium. The alloy may exhibit at least one of a conductivity of 28% of the international annealed copper standard for electrical conductivity or greater, an ultimate tensile strength of 1.1 GPa or greater, a yield strength of about 825 MPa or greater, or a current that may be carried by a 250 ?m wire of about 4 A or greater.

Abstract: Nickel-ruthenium-based ternary or greater alloys, products, and methods of making and using the same include nickel at about 48 to about 71 weight % (“wt %”) of the alloy, ruthenium at about 17 to about 45 wt % of the alloy, and at least one ternary or higher addition at greater than zero to about 20 wt % of the Ni—Ru alloy. The ternary or higher addition may include gold, cobalt, chromium, copper, iridium, molybdenum, niobium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium, tantalum, vanadium, tungsten, or any combination thereof. The Ni—Ru alloy may be age-hardenable, and may exhibit a hardness greater than 500 hardness Knoop. In an embodiment, the Ni—Ru ternary or higher alloy may be used in electronic test probe applications.

Abstract: A combination of materials and processing parameters have been developed for hermetic seals for electrical feedthroughs in high performance applications. A glass-ceramic forms a hermetic seal between a stainless steel shell and a platinum-nickel-based (Pt—Ni) pin alloy for electrical feedthroughs. The glass-ceramic is processed to develop a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) slightly higher than the pin alloy but lower than the stainless steel. The seal system employing the new processing conditions and Pt—Ni-based pin alloy alleviates several problems encountered in previous seal systems and improves the hermetic connector performance.