Low Temperature Sintering and Dielectric Properties of BaTiO3 Ceramics Incorporating Nano-Sized Powders

The densification of nano-sized BaTiO3 (BT) using LiF and LiF-BaCO3 as sintering aids was investigated. The density of the sample containing 1 wt.% LiF and 1 mol% BaCO3 sintered at 900 degrees C could achieve 5.67 g/cm(3) (95% of the theoretical density). The temperature-dependence of the dielectric properties was measured from -20 to 125 degrees C. The results showed that using 1 wt.% LiF and 1 mol% BaCO3 as a sintering aid, the BT ceramic sintered at 900 degrees C for 1.5 h could obtain very high room temperature permittivity (epsilon(r) similar to 5382 at 10 kHz) and with relatively small variation with temperature, which is suitable for low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) applications.