Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation

Craig R Wilkinson

James T Hall

Mark Winslow Johnson

James A Roth

Michael W Mills

Dennis G Neal

Samuel C Sutton

Steven Lai

Method and apparatus for sputter coating an insulated wire with a silicon and metal alloy, to provide the wire with sufficient surface conductivity to protect against build-up of electrostatic charge. A sputtering target of silicon has a metal plate positioned close enough to the sputtering site on the target to permit metal atoms to be dislodged by sputtered silicon, and deposited with the silicon to form an alloy. In the disclosed form of the invention, the wire is insulated with a polyimide material and the metal alloyed with silicon in the sputtered coating is stainless steel.

Silicon alloy coating of insulated wire

A passive thermal control blanket and a method for its manufacture, the blanket including a plastic substrate on which is deposited a film that is a homogeneous mixture of silicon and germanium, thereby combining the excellent reflective and electrostatic discharge properties of germanium with the superior adhesion and corrosion resistance properties of silicon. The uniform mixture is preferably obtained by sputtering the two materials simultaneously onto the substrate, using either separate targets, a single mosaic target, or a single composite target.

Mixed germanium-silicon thermal control blanket

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Torrance, CA, United States of America

Craig R Wilkinson