Measuring Electrical Arcs At The Micrometer Scale (Science Daily) A

Measuring Electrical Arcs At The Micrometer Scale (Science Daily)
A new device and technique have been developed by National Institute of Standards and Technology researchers for measuring "breakdown" voltage -- the voltage required to produce electrical arcs when electrodes are 400 nanometers to 45 micrometers apart. The advance could be useful in microelectronics, such as in the design of microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS), in which arcing could cause