Dielectric properties of (Ba,Ca)(Ti,Zr)O₃ based MLCC novel cofired with Ni by free and constrained sintering

In this paper, the (Ba,Ca)(Ti,Zr)-MLCCs with nickel electrodes by free sintering and constrained sintering as different heating rate have been investigated as different heating rate with 200°C/hr, 1500°C/hr and 3000°C/hr, respectively. The BaTiO₃ was adopted as constraining layer due to the tensile stress of generation resulted from the different onset temperature. The electrical characteristics were closely related to the microstructure change including electrode overlap areas and grain size by free and constrained sintering with different heating rate. The variation of dielectric constant and insulation resistance can be explained by grain size change. The variation of dielectric loss can be explained by the curve of the temperature coefficient of capacitance. To compare with the free sintering, the capacitance value of constrained sintering of MLCCs has increased regardless of the heating rates. The high capacitance, high electrode continuity (>98%) and high insulation resistance (>1010Ω) of BCTZ-based MLCC with nickel electrode can be attained by using a rapid constrained sintering technique.