New reed switch design based on magnetic silver

A new composite magnetic material - silver doped with strontium ferrite nanoparticles (SFO NPs) - opens the way to the construction of reed switches which are based on a new design, which utilizes the fact that the SFO@Ag is metallic-conductive and magnetic at the same time. The induction of magnetism in the inert and stable conductive metals, as well as the use of powder instead of failure-prone metallic reeds, makes this new switch design attractive. Both the magnetic and conductive properties of the switch can be controlled by changing the percentage of the entrapped SFO NPs. This affects the magnetic saturation moments of the composites and the resistivity, as also shown by Hall Effect measurements.