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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.
Glass-ceramic composites as insulation material for thermoelectric oxide multilayer generators
(2021)
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.
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%.
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.
Calcium cobaltite Ca3Co4O9, abbreviated Co349, is a promising thermoelectric material for high‐temperature applications in air. Its anisotropic properties can be assigned to polycrystalline parts by texturing. Tape casting and pressure‐assisted sintering (PAS) are a possible future way for a cost‐effective mass‐production of thermoelectric generators. This study examines the influence of pressure and dwell time during PAS at 900°C of tape‐cast Co349 on texture and thermoelectric properties. Tape casting aligns lentoid Co349. PAS results in a textured Co349 microstructure with the thermoelectrically favorable ab‐direction perpendicular to the pressing direction. By pressure variation during sintering, the microstructure of Co349 can be tailored either toward a maximum figure of merit as required for energy harvesting or toward a maximum power factor as required for energy harvesting. Moderate pressure of 2.5 MPa results in 25% porosity and a textured microstructure with a figure of merit of 0.13 at 700°C, two times higher than the dry‐pressed, pressureless‐sintered reference. A pressure of 7.5 MPa leads to 94% density and a high power factor of 326 µW/mK2 at 800°C, which is 11 times higher than the dry‐pressed reference (30 MPa) from the same powder.
The 5G technology promises real time data transmission for industrial processes, autonomous driving, virtual and augmented reality, E-health applications and many more. The Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics (LTCC) technology is well suited for the manufacturing of microelectronic components for such applications. Still, improvement of the technology such as further miniaturization is required. This study focuses on the characterization of inner metallization of LTCC multilayer modules, especially on the vertical interconnect access (VIA). Critical considerations for this characterization are delamination, pore clustering in and at the edge of the VIA, deformation, and stacking offset. A LTCC multilayer consisting of a glassy crystalline matrix with silver based VIAs was investigated by synchrotron x-ray tomography (CT). The aim of this study is to propose a multitude of structural characteristic values to maximize the information gained from the available dataset. Data analysis has been done with the open source software ImageJ as well as several additional plugins. The high-resolution CT data was evaluated through 2D slices for accessibility reasons. The segmentation of all 2000 slices to assess the different regions e.g. pores, silver and glass ceramic was done by a supervised machine learning algorithm. A quantitative evaluation of shape, deformation, and porosity of the VIA with respect to its dimensions is presented and the suitability of the characterization approach is assessed.
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.
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.
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.
At high temperatures and in harsh environments ceramic springs are often superior to metallic ones and allow for innovative solutions. A further application was proposed by using ceramic springs as capacitive force sensor. Lower and upper coil surfaces are coated by electrically conducting layers. Deformation of such spring results in a change of capacity. Sensor application calls for helical springs with rectangular cross-section, a linear stress-strain characteristic over entire deformation range and low manufacturing tolerances relating to inner and outer diameter, coil cross section and spring pitch. Furthermore, complex spring design with integrated connecting elements has to be realized.
Alumina, zirconia (Y-TZP) and silicon nitride springs were produced by hard machining starting from sintered hollow cylinders. After external and internal cylindrical grinding the hollow cylinders were filled with hard wax, followed by multi-stage cutting of spring coils with custom-made cutting discs. Finally, hard wax was removed by melting and burnout. Best surface and edge qualities of springs were reached using Y-TZP material and hot isostatic pressed alumina. Y-TZP springs produced with material-specifically selected cutting discs and optimized process parameters show sharp coil edges without spallings and mean roughness values of inner surfaces < 0.2 μm. Manufacturing tolerances of spring diameters, spring pitch, height and width of coil cross section are in the range of ± 10 microns. Good reproducibility of spring geometry by optimized hard machining technology allows for production of Y-TZP springs with spring constants differing less than ± 1 % within a series.
According to DIN 2090 spring constant for rectangular coil cross section is proportional to the square of height and width of coil cross section and indirectly proportional to number of active coils and to the cube of the mean spring diameter. Hence, spring constants can be tailored over a range of many orders of magnitude by changing the spring dimensions. Good agreement was reached between calculated target spring constants and measured values on produced springs.
Alumina and zirconia springs were characterized relating to deformation behavior under dynamic compression load with various deformation speeds and under static tensile loads over long periods of time. Contrary to alumina springs, a non-linear stress-strain behavior of TZP springs was proved in both test series. It is supposed, that pseudoelasticity caused by stress-induced transformation of tetragonal to monoclinic phase is responsible for this special feature of TZP springs. Therefore, TZP material cannot be used for capacitive spring sensors.
At high temperatures and in harsh environments ceramic springs are often superior to metallic springs and allow for innovative solutions. A recently proposed application involves ceramic springs with metallized surfaces as capacitive force sensor. A strictly linear stress-strain characteristic of the spring is a precondition for such a sensor.
Helical ceramic springs with rectangular cross-section have been produced from sintered hollow cylinders. Alumina, ATZ, Y-TZP, and Ce-TZP springs with identical dimensions were characterized and compared regarding deformation behavior.
Spring deformation was investigated under various load scenarios.
Dynamic compression was performed with deformation speeds from 0.3 to 30 mm/min. Spring constants of alumina springs are strain rate independent. By contrast, Y-TZP spring constant increases by approximately 3 % within the experimental framework.
A high-precision test facility was developed to characterize spring displacement in nm range under static tensile load over long periods of time. Spring elongation with asymptotic course was observed for zirconia containing materials at room temperature. This effect is particularly strong in the case of Y-TZP. Up to 0.3 % time-dependent elongation was measured after 24 h under constant load. Deformation is completely reversible after unloading. Alumina springs do not show any time-dependent deformation under identical test conditions.
Contrary to alumina springs, a non-linear stress-strain behavior of TZP springs at room temperature was proved in both test series. It is supposed, that pseudo-elasticity caused by stress-induced phase transformation from tetragonal to monoclinic is responsible for this special behavior of TZP springs.
The granules commonly yielded by spray drying procedures exhibit a hard shell and an irregular, dimpled shape, which is often described as donut-like morphology. Sintered parts produced from such granules suffer from microstructural defects and reduced mechanical properties resulting from these disadvantageous granule properties.
Using the example of alumina, zirconia and zirconia-toughened alumina (ZTA) batches, this paper shows that the morphology of the granules can be tuned by adjusting slurry stability. High zeta potential is essential to optimally disperse the particles. But to achieve spherical and soft granules the electrostatic repulsion forces between the particles should be reduced before spray granulation. Electrostatic repulsion forces were changed with the addition of nitric acid. Measurements of zeta potential and viscosity, as well as sedimentation investigations with an optical centrifuge were used for precise slurry assessment as a major precondition for optimal and reproducible adjustment of slurries before spray drying. Sedimentation analysis using an optical centrifuge was performed to investigate different influences like that of additive composition, solids content or pH-value on the sedimentation behavior. Adequately flocculated slurries lead to homogeneous, soft granules that can be easily deformed and pressed. The fraction of donut-shaped particles and the rigidity of granules were reduced. Consequently, the sintered parts produced from these granulates show improvements regarding porosity, pore size distribution, sintered density and biaxial strength.
A 30GHz liquid-crystal-based amplitude tuner is proposed for the first time. The amplitude of a signal can be controlled by using the interference principle. An input signal is divided into a tunable liquid crystal phase shifter and a fixed transmission line. Later, the divided signals are combined together at the output port. The output amplitude depends on the phase difference between the tunable and the fixed line. The low temperature co-fired ceramic technology is utilized to fabricate the device. The measurement shows an attenuation range of 11 dB to 30 dB with a maximum biasing voltage of 100V.
Helical springs with a rectangular cross-section have been machined from sintered and grinded hollow cylinders with high geometrical precision and good reproducibility. Such springs made from tetragonal zirconia polycrystal (TZP) ceramic show excellent edge quality because of high fracture toughness and bending strength of the starting material. Hence, springs with desired geometric dimension and tailored spring constant can be manufactured for highly demanding applications at high temperatures and in harsh environments.
Prior to any practical use, application limits of springs under mechanical and thermal load have to be analyzed. Therefore, different displacement experiments were carried out on the helical TZP springs.
- Dynamic displacement tests at various temperatures from -15°C to +60°C using a piezo actor to load/unload springs with frequencies between 1 and 40 Hz: Springs remained undamaged and the spring constants were not altered, even after more than one million cycles of compression loading.
- Long-time displacement measurements under static tensile loading at room temperature with a high-precision interferometer test facility: Significant spring elongation under constant strain was surprisingly proved over a period of many hours already at room temperature.
- Creeping experiments for 48 h under static compression load at different temperatures up to 1000 °C: After cooling down and load removing no permanent length reduction of springs was observed for test temperatures up to 700 °C. However, reshaping of TZP springs by plastic deformation is possible at higher temperatures and opens up additional possibilities for spring design and manufacturing.
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.
Spray drying of ceramic slurries aims for soft and free-flowing granules with homogenous microstructure neither containing voids nor hard shells suitable for uniaxial and isostatic pressing.
The controlled destabilization of the slurries was introduced, since the unwanted formation of hard granules with voids donut-like shape could be drastically reduced. Spray drying of such modified slurries resulted in soft granules and finally leaded to sintered bodies with improved microstructure, density and strength.
Optimized slurries were atomized in a laboratory spray dryer (Hi-Tec, Niro, Denmark) both with a commercial two stream nozzle and an adapted ultra sound atomization unit. Potential advantages of the ultra sound nebulization are investigated for model systems of alumina, zirconia and a ZTA composite while focusing on solids content of slurries, yield, and granule properties (size distribution, flowability, shape, microstructure, pressability) as well as the final sinter body properties (density, microstructure, strength).
Using ultrasound nozzles in spray drying of identical slurries, as before tested and optimized for a two stream nozzle atomization process, resulted in a more suitable size distribution for dry pressing (less particles below 20 µm), a better flowability and a higher yield. Furthermore the sinter bodies produced of the ultra sound granules have higher sintered density, more homogenous microstructure without large pores and higher strength.
Implementation of Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3-ZnO-B2O3 based tunable microwave phase shifters in LTCC technology
(2017)
Tunable dielectric Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3-ZnO-B2O3 thick-films were analyzed regarding their integration potential into the LTCC technology. Therefore, tunable loaded line phase shifters based on metal-insulator-metal varactors with single- and double- printed BST thick-films were fabricated and co-sintered inside a four layer LTCC module. Microstructural and chemical investigations showed a sufficient compatibility and adhesion between the silver, BST composite and LTCC layers and a resulting morphology depending on the processing route. The microwave characterization of the LTCC-embedded phase shifters revealed comparable results to phase shifters with the same design on alumina substrates.
Structuring of LTCC substrates by a combination of pressure-assisted sintering and hot-embossing
(2015)
A novel technology for the structuring of LTCC surfaces is introduced. The material is shaped in a zero-shrinkage process by embossing a glassy carbon mold into the softened LTCC directly after termination of the shrinkage. Three commercially available LTCC compositions (Ceramtape GC, Heratape CT707, and DP951) were tested. Diverse raised and lowered structures including rings, grids, and characters were fabricated. Different material behavior was observed for the tested compositions. Promising results were achieved with Ceramtape GC. Embossing of precise, 40 µm deep circular cavities and 50 µm high raised characters is demonstrated. Processing of 100 × 100 mm² substrates is possible. DP951 showed very good moldability, but also unwanted material displacement due to evaporating lead. A high displacement capacity but uneven heights of embossed structures were observed on CT707 samples. SEM investigations proved the precise transfer of surface contours from the mold to the LTCC. Thereby, the high potential of the hot-embossing process for micro-patterning of LTCC is illustrated.
Shrinkage measurements of miniaturized low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) samples under load typically lead to collapsing of the samples, which hampers the characterization of shrinkage up to full densification. In this paper, a measurement setup is presented, which allows for in situ shrinkage measurements of practical, large LTCC panels during pressure-assisted sintering in a sintering press. The shrinkage behavior of two commercial LTCC systems (GreenTape 951 and Ceramtape GC) has been measured under loads of up to 1 MPa. No crushing of the specimens was observed and reproducible characterization of shrinkage up to full densification has been performed. Based on comparisons to thermomechanical analyzer measurements in this and other studies, it was found that the in situ approach is much better suited for shrinkage characterization of LTCC under load.
Reproducibility and accuracy of the method are discussed and practical as well as more academic applications are proposed.
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.
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.
A novel process to structure the surfaces of low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) is presented. Lowered and raised structures are formed by hot-embossing with glass-like carbon molds during pressure-assisted sintering. Molding is driven by viscous flow of the LTCC glassy phase above the glass transition temperature. For accurate molding of embossments on the LTCC surface, proper filling of cavities in the glass-like carbon mold is necessary. Therefore, de-airing of the mold cavity has to be assured. Two strategies have been investigated: (i) hot-embossing at 850 °C after termination of LTCC shrinkage with de-airing through vent holes in the mold; and (ii) hot-embossing of open porous LTCC at 775 °C with dense molds, de-airing through pore channels in the LTCC, and subsequent densification by further heating to 850 °C. Circular embossments with 10 mm diameter were molded on a commercially available LTCC (Ceramtape GC, CeramTec GmbH, Marktredwitz, Germany). The sintered height was measured using optical profilometry. Image processing was used to evaluate porosity distributions in the sintered structures. The influence of embossing temperature on LTCC viscosity and mold filling behavior is discussed. Successful molding of 47 µm high raised grids and characters by hot embossing with 0.41 MPa at 775 °C and further heating to 850 °C under constant load is demonstrated. Thereby, the high potential of hot-embossing for precise structuring of LTCC surfaces is illustrated.
Structuring of LTCC Substrates by a Combination of Pressure-Assisted Sintering and Hot Embossing
(2015)
A novel technology for the structuring of low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) surfaces is introduced. The commercial LTCC Ceramtape GC is shaped in a zero-shrinkage process by embossing a glass-like carbon mold into the softened LTCC during pressure-assisted sintering. Diverse raised and lowered structures including rings, grids, and characters were fabricated. It was found that de-airing of mold cavities is crucial for the molding of embossments. De-airing is possible through pore channels in the LTCC if embossing is performed at intermediate temperatures. The influence of LTCC viscosity on the mold filling behavior during the formation of raised structures is discussed. For accurate molding and proper densification of the LTCC, hot embossing with 0.41 MPa at 775 °C and subsequent heating under load to 850 °C is proposed. Embossing of precise, 40 µm deep circular cavities and 50 µm high raised bars and characters is demonstrated. Thereby, the high potential of the hot-embossing process for micro-patterning of LTCC is illustrated.
Novel approaches of tunable devices for millimeter wave applications based on liquid crystal (LC) are presented. In the first part of the paper, a novel concept of a tunable LC phase shifter realized in Low Temperature Cofired Ceramics technology is shown while the second part of the paper deals with a tunable high-gain antenna based on an LC tunable reflectarray. The reflectarray features continuously beam scanning in between ±25°. Also first investigations on radiation hardness of LCs are carried out, indicating that LCs might be suitable for space applications.