microalloy

English

Etymology

micro- +‎ alloy

Noun

microalloy (plural microalloys)

1. An alloy made with very small quantities of elements.
   • 2020, Florent Calvo, Nanoalloys: From Fundamentals to Emergent Applications, page 194:

     For microalloys the boundary can be treated as a thin layer of the segregating element including segregating impurities. In the case of nanoalloys, the segregation pattern can involve a significant part of the whole grain.

2. An element used in very small quantities in an alloy.
   • 1992, Advanced Materials & Processes, volume 142, page 34:

     Today, the use of niobium as a microalloy is estimated to account for about 95% of production.

Verb

microalloy (third-person singular simple present microalloys, present participle microalloying, simple past and past participle microalloyed)

1. To add elements to an alloy in much smaller quantities than normal.
   • 1978, T. F. Leedy, Yan M. Liu, Microelectronic Processing Laboratory at NBS (volume 13, page 23)

     The purpose of this step is to microalloy the aluminum and gold metallizations into the silicon to insure the lowest possible contact resistance […]