Noble metal-coated nanostructures and related methods are disclosed. According to an aspect, a nanostructure may include a structure comprising a base metal. As an example, the structure may be a nanowire. In a more specific example, the structure may be a copper nanowire or a nanowire made of a base metal such as nickel, tin, indium, zinc, the like, or combinations thereof. The base metal structure may be coated with a noble metal that conformally covers the base metal structure. Example noble metals include, but are not limited to, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, silver, iridium, platinum, and gold. The coating may be made of one or more of the noble metals along with other materials.

An electroless surface treatment plated layer of a printed circuit board, a method for preparing the same, and printed circuit board including the same. The electroless surface treatment plated layer includes: electroless nickel (Ni) plated coating/palladium (Pd) plated coating/gold (Au) plated coating, wherein the electroless nickel, palladium, and gold plated coatings have thicknesses of 0.02 to 1 μm, 0.01 to 0.3 μm, and 0.01 to 0.5 μm, respectively. In the electroless surface treatment plated layer of the printed circuit board, a thickness of the nickel plated coating is specially minimized to 0.02 to 1 μm, thereby making it possible to form an optimized electroless Ni/Pd/Au surface treatment plated layer.

An RFI/EMI shielding material composed of a conductive multi-fiber having a plurality of metalized monofilaments, each monofilament having a core of stainless steel or low carbon steel with an initial diameter and at least two layers of metal or metal alloy electroplated on the core which is drawn after electroplating to a final diameter less than the initial diameter, in the range of about 45-80 μm.

In various embodiments, electronic devices such as touch-panel displays incorporate interconnects featuring a conductor layer and, disposed above the conductor layer, a capping layer comprising an alloy of Cu and one or more refractory metal elements selected from the group consisting of Ta, Nb, Mo, W, Zr, Hf, Re, Os, Ru, Rh, Ti, V, Cr, and Ni.

Contact pins for glass seals is provided having an iron alloy and a method for their production. The contact pins are provided with a nickel layer and coated with rhodium and/or platinum or with palladium. The contact pins may be additionally provided with a layer of gold. The contact pins are first cleaned by degreasing and activating, preferably by activating through acid etching. Thereafter, the application of a nickel layer is performed under a protective gas atmosphere, followed by formatting at 850 to 1050° C. The protective gas atmosphere is preferably made up of 10 to 100% hydrogen, with the balance formed of nitrogen. This is followed by a coating with palladium or with rhodium and platinum, or with platinum, or with rhodium and gold.

A double pinned magnetoresistance element has a temporary ferromagnetic layer, two PtMn antiferromagnetic pinning layers, and two associated synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) pinned layer structures, the temporary ferromagnetic layer operable to improve annealing of the two PtMn antiferromagnetic pinning layers and the two associated SAFs to two different magnetic directions that are a relative ninety degrees apart.

An electrically conductive contact element for an electrical connector comprises a contact surface having a plurality of caverns arranged under the contact surface in a microstructure and an auxiliary material filled in the plurality of caverns.

A copper alloy sheet or strip for a lead frame of LED includes specific amounts of Fe, P, Zn, and Sn with the remainder being Cu and unavoidable impurities. A surface roughness thereof is less than 0.06 μm in terms of arithmetic average roughness Ra and is less than 0.5 μm in terms of ten-point average roughness Rz.sub.JIS. The number of groove-shaped recesses present on the surface, each having a length of 5 μm or more and a depth of 0.25 μm or more, is 2 or less in a range of a square of 200 μm×200 μm with a pair of its sides running in transverse to a rolling direction. A thickness of a work affected layer formed of fine grains on the surface is 0.5 μm or less.

Provided is a bonding wire capable of reducing the occurrence of defective loops. The bonding wire includes: a core material which contains more than 50 mol % of a metal M; an intermediate layer which is formed over the surface of the core material and made of Ni, Pd, the metal M, and unavoidable impurities, and in which the concentration of the Ni is 15 to 80 mol %; and a coating layer formed over the intermediate layer and made of Ni, Pd and unavoidable impurities. The concentration of the Pd in the coating layer is 50 to 100 mol %. The metal M is Cu or Ag, and the concentration of Ni in the coating layer is lower than the concentration of Ni in the intermediate layer.

Coated articles and methods for applying coatings are described. In some cases, the coating can exhibit desirable properties and characteristics such as durability, corrosion resistance, and high conductivity. The articles may be coated, for example, using an electrodeposition process.