Fabrication of Nanocomposite Magnetic Cores for High Freq. Electronic Devices

Inframat proposes to demonstrate the feasibility of fabricating high frequency soft magnetic/ceramic nanocomposites for significantly improved magnetic performance for NASA¿¿s electronic equipment applications. The improved properties will include a combination of higher magnetic permeability, higher electrical resistivity, and lower magnetic loss compared with conventional NiFe2O4 and Co2Z ferrites. Over the past half century, conventional ferrites have been the only type of magnetic materials for high frequency applications, and the performance of ferrites is relatively poor. In the proposed work, magnetic/ceramic nanocomposite materials with various magnetic particle volume fractions will be manufactured using a wet-chemical synthesis technique. The magnetic performance of the as-fabricated end product will be tested and compared with conventional ferrites. The proposed magnetic nanocomposite technology is expected to have a major impact on NASA¿¿s power management and distribution applications. Inframat has aggressively sought to identify commercialization opportunities in the field of magnetic nanocomposite materials and has teamed with an experimental physicist from the Univ. of Delaware to develop commercial opportunities. The team will adopt IMC¿¿s patent pending economically viable aqueous synthesis technique to produce magnetic nanocomposite powders. The subsequent processing step will be the fabrication of desired shapes of magnetic components using press-sintering techniques.