Tungsten needles are known for their high mechanical stiffness, which makes them suitable for various microscale mechanical applications. Tungsten has a Young’s modulus of approximately 400 GPa, which is one of the highest among all metals. This high stiffness allows tungsten needles to resist bending and deformation when subjected to mechanical loads.
Compared to other commonly used materials in microscale mechanical applications, such as silicon and polymers, tungsten needles have a significantly higher stiffness. For example, the Young’s modulus of silicon is approximately 170 GPa, while that of most polymers is in the range of 1-10 GPa.
Therefore, tungsten needles may be preferred over other materials when high mechanical stiffness is required in microscale mechanical applications, such as microscale machining, microscale robotics, and microscale sensing.
