Ceramic Materials Used In Electronics

Abdullahi in reference module in materials science and materials engineering 2016.

Ceramic materials used in electronics.

The insulating properties of ceramics are well known and these properties have found application in advanced ceramic materials for substrates and packages. Ceramics are more than pottery and dishes. The composition of engineered ceramics makes them highly effective electric insulators which is how they are most commonly used though ceramics can also be carefully processed and specified for conductivity to fit the application. Ceramics used for this type of applications are called functional ceramics.

These companies make most consumer products pcbs and virtually anything with. For example ceramic heat sinks provide the right climate for high power electronics. Among the ceramics employed as electronic substrates and packages the dominant material is alumina aluminum oxide al. Advanced ceramics in electronics ceramic substrates circuit carriers core materials and many other components are in use throughout the electronics industry.

They can be used as backing material or mounting brackets to which other electrical components are attached for example the electronic systems in a modern car are mounted on alumina. When the electronics unit is working it generates heat and the alumina backing conducts the. Ceramic materials are used in electronics because depending on their composition they may be semiconducting superconducting ferroelectric or an insulator. Its specific electrical resistance reaches 10 16 ω cm at room temperature while at 1600 c it still reaches a level of 10 6 ω cm.

Much of the processing and assembly of electronic ceramics are done in areas of the world with very low labor costs. Ceramic insulators like alumina are also very good heat conductors. Engineered ceramics exhibit superior dielectric attributes when compared to other materials like plastics or metals. Clay bricks tiles glass and cement are probably the best known examples.

In electronic and electrical industries advanced ceramic materials like barium titanate batio3 piezoelectric materials and semiconductor materials are heavily used for producing ceramic capacitors vibratos temperature sensors oscillators etc. Nimn 2 o 4 materials are widely used in industry as the basis for the production of ceramic temperature sensors due to its electrical properties characterized by a negative temperature coefficient. The materials and products are described in this article. The nearly 4 5 trillion global electronics industry would not exist without ceramics.

Al 2 o 3 ceramic with purity up to 99 9 remains one of the most commonly used oxide ceramic electrical insulating materials even today.