TY - JOUR A1 - Bresch, Sophie A1 - Mieller, Björn A1 - Mrkwitschka, Paul A1 - Moos, R. A1 - Rabe, Torsten T1 - Glass-ceramic composites as insulation material for thermoelectric oxide multilayer generators JF - Journal of the American Ceramic Society N2 - Thermoelectric generators can be used as energy harvesters for sensor applications. Adapting the ceramic multilayer technology, their production can be highly automated. In such multilayer thermoelectric generators, the electrical insulation material, which separates the thermoelectric legs, is crucial for the performance of the device. The insulationmaterial should be adapted to the thermoelectric regarding its averaged coefficient of thermal expansion α and its sintering temperature while maintaining a high resistivity. In this study, starting from theoretical calculations, a glass-ceramic Composite material adapted for multilayer generators fromcalciummanganate and Calcium cobaltite is developed. The material is optimized towards an α of 11 × 10−6 K−1 (20–500◦C), a sintering temperature of 900◦C, and a high resistivity up to 800◦C. Calculated and measured α are in good agreement. The chosen glass-ceramic composite with 45 vol.% quartz has a resistivity of 1 × 107 Ωcm and an open porosity of <3%. Sintered multilayer samples from tape-cast thermoelectric oxides and screen-printed insulation show only small reaction layers. It can be concluded that glass-ceramic composites are a well-suited material class for insulation layers as their physical properties can be tuned by varying glass composition or dispersion phases. KW - Electrical insulators KW - Glass-ceramics KW - Multilayers KW - Thermal expansion PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-538898 DO - https://doi.org/10.1111/jace.18235 SN - 0002-7820 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - Wiley Online Library AN - OPUS4-53889 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Belli, R. A1 - Hurle, K. A1 - Schürrlein, J. A1 - Petschelt, A. A1 - Werbach, K. A1 - Peterlik, H. A1 - Rabe, Torsten A1 - Mieller, Björn A1 - Lohbauer, U. T1 - Relationships between fracture toughness, Y2O3 fraction and phase content in modern dental Yttria-doped zirconias JF - Journal of the European Ceramic Society N2 - The relationship between fracture toughness and Yttria content in modern zirconia ceramics was revised. For that purpose, we evaluated here 10 modern Y2O3-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) materials currently used in biomedical applications, namely prosthetic and implant dentistry. The most relevant range between 2-5 mol% Y2O3 was addressed by selecting from conventional opaque 3 mol% YSZ up to more translucent compositions (4-5 mol% YSZs). A technical 2YSZ was used to extend the range of our evaluation. The bulk mol% Y2O3 concentration was measured by X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy. Phase quantification by Rietveld refinement considered two tetragonal phases or an additional cubic phase. A first-account of the fracture toughness (KIc) of the pre-sintered blocks is given, which amounted to 0.4 – 0.7 MPa√m. In the fully-densified state, an inverse power-law behavior was obtained between KIc and bulk mol% Y2O3 content, whether using only our measurements or including literature data, challenging some established relationships. A linear relationship between KIc and the fraction of the transformable t-phase was established within the range of 30–70 vol%. KW - Ceramics KW - Dental KW - Zirconia KW - Fracture toughness KW - X-ray-diffraction KW - Power law PY - 2021 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2021.08.003 VL - 41 IS - 15 SP - 7771 EP - 7782 PB - Elsevier Ltd. AN - OPUS4-53107 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bresch, Sophie A1 - Mieller, Björn A1 - Moos, R. A1 - Rabe, Torsten T1 - Lowering the sintering temperature of calcium manganate for thermoelectric applications JF - AIP Advances N2 - This study combines three different approaches to lower the sintering temperature of Sm-doped CaMnO3 to save energy in production and facilitate co-firing with other low-firing oxides or metallization. The surface energy of the powder was increased by fine milling, sintering kinetics were enhanced by additives, and uniaxial pressure during sintering was applied. The shrinkage, density, microstructure, and thermoelectric properties were evaluated. Compared to micro-sized powder, the use of finely ground powder allows us to lower the sintering temperature by 150 K without reduction of the power factor. By screening the effect of various common additives on linear shrinkage of CaMnO3 after sintering at 1100 ○C for 2 h, CuO is identified as the most effective additive. Densification at sintering temperatures below 1000 ○C can be significantly increased by pressure-assisted sintering. The power factor at room temperature of CaMnO3 nano-powder sintered at 1250 ○C was 445 μW/(m K2). Sintering at 1100 ○C reduced the power factor to 130 μW/(m K2) for CaMnO3 nano-powder, while addition of 4 wt.% CuO to the same powder led to ∼290 μW/(m K2). The combination of fine milling, CuO addition, and pressureassisted sintering at 950 ○C resulted in a power factor of ∼130 μW/(m K2). These results show that nano-sized powder and CuO addition are successful and recommendable strategies to produce CaMnO3 with competitive properties at significantly reduced temperatures and dwell times. KW - Sintering additive KW - Liquid phase sintering KW - Pressure assisted sintering PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-555467 DO - https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0098015 SN - 2158-3226 VL - 12 IS - 8 SP - 1 EP - 9 PB - American Institute of Physics (AIP) CY - New York, NY AN - OPUS4-55546 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Naghib-zadeh, H. A1 - Oder, Gabriele A1 - Hesse, J. A1 - Reimann, T. A1 - Töpfer, J. A1 - Rabe, Torsten T1 - Effect of oxygen partial pressure on co-firing behavior and magnetic properties of LTCC modules with integrated NiCuZn ferrite layers JF - Journal of Electroceramics N2 - Low-κ dielectric LTCC was developed, to realize successful co-firing with NiCuZn ferrite tapes. A critical high-temperature process in the production of highly integrated LTCC modules is the migration of silver from inner conductors into the LTCC glass phase. Intensive silver migration causes strong deformation of LTCC multilayers during firing in air. Silver migration into the LTCC glass phase depends on oxygen content of the sintering atmosphere and can be minimized by sintering in nitrogen atmosphere. However, partial decomposition of NiCuZn-ferrite and formation of cuprite was observed during sintering in nitrogen and, consequently, the permeability of the ferrite decreases. As shown by a combined XRD/thermogravimetric study the co-firing of LTCC modules with silver metallization and integrated ferrite layer demands precise adjustment of oxygen partial pressure. KW - Ferrite KW - Silver diffusion KW - Co-firing KW - LTCC PY - 2016 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10832-016-0043-0 SN - 1385-3449 SN - 1573-8663 VL - 37 IS - 1-4 SP - 100 EP - 109 PB - Springer Science+Business Media CY - New York AN - OPUS4-38603 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hesse, J. A1 - Naghib-zadeh, H. A1 - Rabe, Torsten A1 - Töpfer, J. T1 - Integration of additive-free Ni–Cu–Zn ferrite layers into LTCC multilayer modules JF - Journal of the European Ceramic Society N2 - The sintering behavior of sub-micron Ni0.30Cu0.20Zn0.52Fe1.98O3.99 ferrite with and without Bi2O3 addition was studied. Ferrites with 0.5 wt% Bi2O3 exhibit enhanced shrinkage at T < 900 °C with significant grain growth. Additive-free ferrite powders also sinter to high density at 900 °C, however, grain growth is very limited. Both ferrites exhibit a permeability of µ = 400–450. Multilayers consisting of ferrite and low-k dielectric LTCC layers were prepared by co-firing at 900–915 °C. The shrinkage and thermal expansion characteristics of ferrite and LTCC tapes are similar. However, the permeability of integrated ferrite layers, made from ferrite tapes with Bi2O3 additive, significantly drops after co-firing with LTCC layers compared to separately fired monolithic ferrite multilayers. Contrarily, the permeability of integrated, Bi2O3-free ferrite layers, co-fired with dielectric tapes, is identical to that of monolithic ferrite multilayers. This finding is an important step toward ferrite integration into complex LTCC multilayer architectures. KW - LTCC KW - Ferrite integration KW - Multilayer KW - Sintering PY - 2016 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2016.02.016 SN - 0955-2219 VL - 36 IS - 8 SP - 1931 EP - 1937 PB - Elsevier Ltd. CY - Oxford, UK AN - OPUS4-36001 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bresch, Sophie A1 - Mieller, Björn A1 - Selleng, Christian A1 - Stöcker, T. A1 - Moos, R. A1 - Rabe, Torsten T1 - Influence of the calcination procedure on the thermoelectric properties of calcium cobaltite Ca3Co4O9 JF - Journal of Electroceramics N2 - Calcium cobaltite is one of the most promising oxide p-type thermoelectric materials. The solid-state reaction (or calcination, respectively), which is well known for large-scale powder synthesis of functional materials, can also be used for the synthesis of thermoelectric oxides. There are various calcination routines in literature for Ca3Co4O9 powder synthesis, but no systematic study has been done on the influence of calcination procedure on thermoelectric properties. Therefore, the influence of calcination conditions on the Seebeck coefficient and the electrical conductivity was studied by modifying calcination temperature, dwell time, particle size of raw materials and number of calcination cycles. This study shows that elevated temperatures, longer dwell times, or repeated calcinations during powder synthesis do not improve but deteriorate the thermoelectric properties of calcium cobaltite. Diffusion during calcination leads to idiomorphic grain growth, which lowers the driving force for sintering of the calcined powder. A lower driving force for sintering reduces the densification. The electrical conductivity increases linearly with densification. The calcination procedure barely influences the Seebeck coefficient. The calcination procedure has no influence on the phase formation of the sintered specimens. KW - Thermoelectrics KW - Calcination KW - Calcium Cobaltite KW - Solid-State-Synthesis KW - Reaction-sintering PY - 2018 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10832-018-0124-3 SN - 1385-3449 SN - 1573-8663 VL - 40 IS - 3 SP - 225 EP - 234 PB - Springer AN - OPUS4-44336 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Höhne, Patrick A1 - Mieller, Björn A1 - Rabe, Torsten T1 - Advancing spray granulation by ultrasound atomization JF - International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology N2 - The influence of the atomization technique on the suitability of granules for dry pressing is the focus of the presented investigations. Therefore, destabilized alumina, zirconia, and zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA) slurries were spray dried and the obtained granules were used to fabricate green and finally sintered bodies for evaluation. Granules made in a laboratory spray dryer with a two-fluid nozzle served as a reference. An ultrasonic atomizer was integrated into the same spray dryer and the influence on the granule properties was evaluated. Untapped bulk density, granule size distribution, and flowability are among the evaluated granule-related properties as well as the granule yield which is used as an indicator of the process efficiency. Yield and flowability as most important granule properties are clearly improved when atomization is realized with ultrasound. The investigated sinter body properties include porosity, sinter body density, and biaxial strength and are as well positively affected by switching the atomization technique to ultrasound. Therefore, the Approach to improve the compressibility of granules by ultrasonic atomization, which leads to an improved microstructure, density, and strength of sintered bodies, has proven to be successful for single-component ceramics (alumina and zirconia) as well as for the multicomponent ceramic ZTA. KW - Alumina KW - Granules KW - Spray drying KW - Ultrasound KW - Zirconia KW - Zirconia-toughened alumina PY - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-510696 DO - https://doi.org/10.1111/ijac.13534 VL - 17 IS - 5 SP - 2212 EP - 2219 AN - OPUS4-51069 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Matz, R. A1 - Rabe, Torsten A1 - Töpfer, J. A1 - Ziesche, S. T1 - Circuit-Board-Integrated Transformers Design and Manufacture JF - Journal of Ceramic Science and Technology N2 - Transformers couple two sections of a circuit by electromagnetic induction. They are widely used to either transform alternating voltage levels or to transmit power or signals across galvanic isolation. Both of these functions are essential for the operation of sensors and controllers. Covering all aspects from idea to circuit performance and from design to manufacture, this paper presents the first comprehensive description of the making of miniaturized, rugged, up-to-100W transformers for embedding into multilayer circuit boards. For circular coils, the well-manageable Ampere-Laplace law is shown to yield reliable designs, predicting correctly the performance of manufactured hardware. This enables fast design without lengthy finite element modelling. In the low-power linear regime, basic relations describe how the device’s characteristics evolve from the material properties and device structure. While scattering Parameters are useful for the analysis of isolated transformers with their intrinsic parasitics, the interaction with the components of the final circuit and the aspects of power and efficiency are addressed by chain matrixes. While these design rules are similar for multilayer boards of different material (like epoxy, Teflon, ceramics), the manufacturing of ceramic board transformers is considered here in detail. Low-temperature-cofired ceramic (LTCC) boards being sintered at 900 °C are particularly suited for harsh environments with chemical or thermal stress as frequently found at sensor positions. The transformer performance usually benefits from or even requires an integrated ceramic core of higher permeability, a ferrite, to shape the magnetic flux. Methods to sinter ferrites inside a dielectric ceramic multilayerandto measure their performance are therefore described in detail.Asthe sintering behaviour of dielectricandmagnetic ceramics differs considerably, their simultaneous sintering is challenging.However, the sintering temperatures of the usefulMnZnand NiZnCu ferrites can be lowered to that of the dielectric material with only moderate loss of permeability by glass additives. Furthermore, thermal mismatch between materials causes catastrophic failure or at least stress and loss of magnetic performance during cooling to room temperature after sintering. This is avoidable by either adjusting the thermal expansion coefficient of the ferrite or by enclosing the ferrite between stressreleasing separation layers.We present the state of the art in materials development according to the first approach as well as fully functional devices made with the second technique. Other applications not directly addressed but well related to this work are characterized by low load resistance in relation to the coil resistance of the transformer. Efficient power transmission then requires that technological solutions are applied to achieve the lowest possible resistive loss inside the coils by an enlarged conductor cross-section. As this is particularly challenging for LTCC boards, a technique is discussed to fabricate conductor traces with a thickness larger than their width. KW - Multilayer ceramic technology KW - LTCC KW - Transformer PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/10.4416/JCST2019-00071 SN - 2190-9385 VL - 11 IS - 1 SP - 44 EP - 61 PB - Göller Verlag CY - Baden-Baden AN - OPUS4-50751 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bresch, Sophie A1 - Mieller, Björn A1 - Schönauer-Kamin, D. A1 - Moos, R. A1 - Giovanelli, F. A1 - Rabe, Torsten T1 - Influence of pressure assisted sintering and reaction sintering on microstructure and thermoelectric properties of bi-doped and undoped calcium cobaltite JF - Journal of Applied Physics N2 - Calcium cobaltite (Ca3Co4O9) is considered as one of the most promising thermoelectric p-type oxides for energy harvesting applications at temperatures above 500 °C. It is challenging to sinter this material as its stability is limited to 920 °C. To facilitate a practicable and scalable production of Ca3Co4O9 for multilayer generators, a systematic study of the influence of powder calcination, Bi-doping, reaction sintering, and pressure-assisted sintering (PAS) on microstructure and thermoelectric properties is presented. Batches of doped, undoped, calcined, and not calcined powders were prepared, tape-cast, and sintered with and without uniaxial pressure at 900 °C. The resulting phase compositions, microstructures and thermoelectric properties were analysed. It is shown that the beneficial effect of Bi-doping observed on pressureless sintered samples cannot be transferred to PAS. Liquid phase formation induces distortions and abnormal grain growth. Although the Seebeck coefficient is increased to 139 µV/K by Bi-doping, the power factor is low due to poor electrical conductivity. The best results were achieved by PAS of calcined powder. The dense and textured microstructure exhibits a high power factor of 326 µW/mK² at 800 °C but adversely high thermal conductivity in the relevant direction. The figure of merit is higher than 0.08 at 700 °C. KW - Ceramics KW - Calcium cobaltite KW - Thermoelectric properties KW - Calcination KW - Pressure-assisted sintering PY - 2019 DO - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5107476 SN - 0021-8979 VL - 126 IS - 7 SP - 075102-1 EP - 075102-11 PB - AIP Publishing CY - Melville AN - OPUS4-48708 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hajian, A. A1 - Konegger, T. A1 - Bielecki, K. A1 - Mieller, Björn A1 - Rabe, Torsten A1 - Schwarz, S. A1 - Zellner, C. A1 - Schmid, U. T1 - Wet chemical porosification with phosphate buffer solutions for permittivity reduction of LTCC substrates JF - Journal of Alloys and Compounds N2 - The wireless high-frequency technology requires a robust, cost-effective, and highly integrated substrate technology offering the capability for areas of tailored permittivity. The wet-chemical porosification of low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) substrates offers such an approach by locally embedding air. Porosification of LTCC in both extremely acidic and alkaline media has been investigated in previous works. However, for improving the available knowledge on the porosification of LTCC with H3PO4 as a standard and a widely used etching solution, the impact of solution concentration was systematically investigated and a substantial improvement in the etching performance was achieved. Moreover, in the present study, for the first time, the intermediate pH values, and the impact of pH as a key parameter on the etching process have been investigated. For this purpose, the applicability of phosphate buffer solution (PBS) as a prospective novel etchant mixture for the porosification of a commercially available LTCC tape (Ceramtape GC) was explored. Valuable information about surface morphology, crystalline composition, and the pore structure of the etched LTCCs was gathered employing scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, and mercury porosimetry measurements. Based on these findings, the performance of PBS-based etchant systems towards the generation of porous LTCCs combining high depths of porosification with acceptable surface characteristics for subsequent metallization is demonstrated. Based on the obtained results, by application of a 0.2 mol L−1 solution of PBS, the effective relative permittivity of test samples with a thickness of approximately 600 µm and a porosification depth of 186 µm from each side, could be reduced up to 10% of its initial “as fired” value. Also, based on the measurement results and by measuring the depth of porosification, the permittivity of the etched layer was estimated to show a reduction of up to 22% compared to the initial “as fired” value. KW - LTCC KW - Porosification KW - Wet chemical etching KW - Permittivity reduction PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2020.158059 SN - 0925-8388 VL - 863 SP - 158059 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-51800 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -