Volume 8 Issue 1
Control of Silver Diffusion in Low-Temperature Co-Fired Diopside Glass-Ceramic Microwave Dielectrics
Chen-Chia Chou, Chun-Yao Chang, Guang-Yu Chen, Wen-Jiao Liao, Kuei-Chih Feng and Chung-Ya Tsao
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, No. 43, Keelung Road, Sec. 4, Taipei 10607, Taiwan
2Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, No. 43, Keelung Road, Sec. 4, Taipei 10607, Taiwan
3Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology, Taishan Dist., New Taipei City 24301, Taiwan
4Prosperity Dielectric Company Limited, Taoyuan 338, Taiwan
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Electrode material for low-temperature co-fired diopside glass-ceramic used for microwave dielectrics was investigated in the present work. Diffusion of silver from the electrode to diopside glass-ceramics degrades the performance of the microwave dielectrics. Two approaches were adopted to resolve the problem of silver diffusion. Firstly, silicon-oxide (SiO2) powder was employed and secondly crystalline phases were chosen to modify the sintering behavior and inhibit silver ions diffusion. Nanoscale amorphous SiO2 powder turns to the quartz phase uniformly in dielectric material during the sintering process, and prevents the silver from diffusion. The chosen crystalline phase mixing into the glass-ceramics enhances crystallinity of the material and inhibits silver diffusion as well. The result provides a method to decrease the diffusivity of silver ions by adding the appropriate amount of SiO2 and appropriate crystalline ceramics in diopside glass-ceramic dielectric materials. Finally, we used IEEE 802.11a 5.8 GHz as target specification to manufacture LTCC antenna and the results show that a good broadband antenna was made using CaMgSi2O6 with 4 wt % silicon oxide.
Keywords:microwave dielectrics; silver diffusion; glass-ceramics; diopside; co-fired silver electrode; low temperature co-fired ceramics