MICROWAVE SINTERING OF INTEGRATED PASSIVE DEVICES

摘要

Microwave sintering of Integrated Passive Devices (IPDs) has been carried out for the first time. The sintered samples were characterised for density, microstructure, composition and electrical performance. It was found that IPDs with varistor/capacitor formulations could be microwave sintered to more than 98% densification within 3 hours of total cycle time, which is one tenth of the time required by conventional methods. Microwave sintering resulted in better products with finer grain structure and the electrodes in the multilayer devices were kept intact without delamination. There was no significant inter-diffusion observed between the varistor/capacitor and ceramic/electrode interfaces. The microwave technique also completely eliminated the separate binder burnt-out step. The electrical properties of the sintered samples were also found to be better or matching with the required values.