Patent ID: 7517603

Claim:
A fuel cell assembly comprising: first and second electrodes, and a membrane assembly at least partially disposed between the first and second electrodes, the membrane assembly having a support defining an opening; and a thin-film island made of a material selected from the group consisting of copper, nickel, palladium, platinum, rhenium, silicon carbide, aluminum nitride, an oxide, and combinations thereof and wherein the oxide is selected from the group consisting of oxides of aluminum, cerium, chromium, cobalt, hafnium, iron, lanthanum, magnesium, manganese, samarium, scandium, silicon, strontium, titanium, ytterbium, yttrium, zirconium, praseodymium, and combinations thereof and the thin film island having a width between 10 and 80 microns and occluding the opening, wherein the width of a shape defined by the thin-film island is greater than one tenth a characteristic crack spacing and less than twice the characteristic crack spacing, and wherein a ratio of the maximum distance between two opposing sides to the thickness of the thin-film island is greater than one-tenth a critical aspect ratio for buckling of the thin-film island and less than the critical aspect ratio for buckling of the thin-film island.