capacitor dielectric and piezoelectric ceramics

capacitor dielectric and piezoelectric ceramics, advanced industrial materials that, by virtue of their poor electrical conductivity, are useful in the production of electrical storage or generating devices.

Capacitors are devices that store electric energy in the form of an electric field generated in the space between two separated, oppositely charged electrodes. Their capacity to store energy makes them essential components in many electric circuits, and that capacity can be greatly increased by inserting a solid dielectric material into the space separating the electrodes. Dielectrics are materials that are poor conductors of electricity. The nonconducting properties of ceramics are well known, and some ceramics are made into extremely effective dielectrics. Indeed, more than 90 percent of all capacitors are produced with ceramic materials serving as the dielectric.

Piezoelectrics are materials that generate a voltage when they are subjected to mechanical pressure; conversely, when subjected to an electromagnetic field, they exhibit a change in dimension. Many piezoelectric devices are made of the same ceramic materials as capacitor dielectrics.

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This article describes the properties of the most prominent dielectric and piezoelectric ceramics and surveys their practical applications.

Ferroelectric properties of barium titanate

The phenomenon of electric capacitance is described in some detail in electricity: Electrostatics: Capacitance. In that article it is explained that low electric conductivity is a factor of the chemical bonds that form a material. In dielectrics, unlike in conductive materials such as metals, the strong ionic and covalent bonds holding the atoms together do not leave electrons free to travel through the material under the influence of an electric field. Instead, the material becomes electrically polarized, its internal positive and negative charges separating somewhat and aligning parallel to the axis of the electric field. When employed in a capacitor, this polarization acts to reduce the strength of the electric field maintained between the electrodes, which in turn raises the amount of charge that can be stored.

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Most ceramic capacitor dielectrics are made of barium titanate (BaTiO₃) and related perovskite compounds. As is pointed out in the article ceramic composition and properties, perovskite ceramics have a face-centred cubic (fcc) crystal structure. In the case of BaTiO₃, at high temperatures (above approximately 120° C, or 250° F) the crystal structure consists of a tetravalent titanium ion (Ti⁴⁺) sitting at the centre of a cube with the oxygen ions (O²⁻) on the faces and the divalent barium ions (Ba²⁺) at the corners. Below 120° C, however, a transition occurs. As is shown in Figure 1, the Ba²⁺ and O²⁻ ions shift from their cubic positions, and the Ti⁴⁺ ion shifts away from the cube centre. A permanent dipole results, and the symmetry of the atomic structure is no longer cubic (all axes identical) but rather tetragonal (the vertical axis different from the two horizontal axes). There is a permanent concentration of positive and negative charges toward opposite poles of the vertical axis. This spontaneous polarization is known as ferroelectricity; the temperature below which the polarity is exhibited is called the Curie point. Ferroelectricity is the key to the utility of BaTiO₃ as a dielectric material.

Within local regions of a crystal or grain that is made up of these polarized structures, all the dipoles line up in what is referred to as a domain, but, with the crystalline material consisting of a multitude of randomly oriented domains, there is overall cancellation of the polarization. However, with the application of an electric field, as in a capacitor, the boundaries between adjacent domains can move, so that domains aligned with the field grow at the expense of out-of-alignment domains, thus producing large net polarizations. The susceptibility of these materials to electric polarization is directly related to their capacitance, or capacity to store electric charge. The capacitance of a specific dielectric material is given a measure known as the dielectric constant, which is essentially the ratio between the capacitance of that material and the capacitance of a vacuum. In the case of the perovskite ceramics, dielectric constants can be enormous—in the range of 1,000–5,000 for pure BaTiO₃ and up to 50,000 if the Ti⁴⁺ ion is replaced by zirconium (Zr⁴⁺).

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Chemical substitutions in the BaTiO₃ structure can alter a number of ferroelectric properties. For example, BaTiO₃ exhibits a large peak in dielectric constant near the Curie point—a property that is undesirable for stable capacitor applications. This problem may be addressed by the substitution of lead (Pb²⁺) for Ba²⁺, which increases the Curie point; by the substitution of strontium (Sr²⁺), which lowers the Curie point; or by substituting Ba²⁺ with calcium (Ca²⁺), which broadens the temperature range at which the peak occurs.

Disk, multilayer, and tubular capacitors

Barium titanate can be produced by mixing and firing barium carbonate and titanium dioxide, but liquid-mix techniques are increasingly used in order to achieve better mixing, precise control of the barium-titanium ratio, high purity, and submicrometre particle size. Processing of the resulting powder varies according to whether the capacitor is to be of the disk or multilayer type. Disks are dry-pressed or punched from tape and then fired at temperatures between 1,250° and 1,350° C (2,280° and 2,460° F). Silver-paste screen-printed electrodes are bonded to the surfaces at 750° C (1,380° F). Leads are soldered to the electrodes, and the disks are epoxy-coated or wax-impregnated for encapsulation.

The capacitance of ceramic disk capacitors can be increased by using thinner capacitors; unfortunately, fragility results. Multilayer capacitors (MLCs) overcome this problem by interleaving dielectric and electrode layers (see Figure 2). The electrode layers are usually palladium or a palladium-silver alloy. These metals have a melting point that is higher than the sintering temperature of the ceramic, allowing the two materials to be cofired. By connecting alternate layers in parallel, large capacitances can be realized with the MLC. The dielectric layers are processed by tape casting or doctor blading and then drying. Layer thicknesses as small as 5 micrometres (0.00022 inch) have been achieved. Finished “builds” of dielectric and electrode layers are then diced into cubes and cofired. MLCs have the advantages of small size, low cost, and good performance at high frequencies, and they are suitable for surface mounting on circuit boards. They are increasingly used in place of disk capacitors in most electronic circuitry. Where monolithic units are still employed, tubular capacitors are often used in place of disks, because the axial wire lead configuration of tubular capacitors is preferred over the radial configuration of disk capacitors for automatic circuit-board insertion machines.

As is noted above, barium titanate-based MLCs usually require firing temperatures in excess of 1,250° C. To facilitate cofiring with electrode alloys of lower melting temperatures, the sintering temperature of the ceramic can be reduced to the neighbourhood of 1,100° C (2,000° F) by adding low-melting glasses or fluxing agents. In order to reduce the costs associated with precious-metal electrodes such as palladium and silver, ceramic compositions have been developed that can be cofired with less expensive nickel or copper at lower temperatures.