The heart of the reed relay is the reed switch, which is composed of two or more nickel/iron leads within a hermetically sealed glass envelope, as can be seen on this slide. The inner sealed ends of the leads have plated or sputtered metallization to ensure long, reliable contact life. The contacts consist of an under layer or base metal which is nickel/iron, a sputtered layer of tungsten, and a very hard sputtered ruthenium metal outer layer located at the ends of the leads where they contact each other when closed. Several other reed switch plating materials exist, and their use is dependent on the manufacturer and application requirements.