The effect of sintering atmosphere on V₂O₅ substituted BiNbO₄ microwave ceramics

In multiplayer passive devices, low sintering temperature dielectric materials were needed to co-fire with low melting point inner electrode such as copper or silver, a major problem of base metal electrode (BME) was that the devices must be fired under low oxygen partial pressure atmosphere to protect Cu from oxidation. In this paper, dielectric properties of Bi(V_xNb _1-x)O₄ (x=0.001, 0.004, 0.008, 0.016, 0.048) microwave ceramics sintered under air and N2 atmosphere have been investigated. The densification temperature sintered in different atmosphere decreased from 1010 to 830°C with the amount of V2O5 increasing from 0.001 to 0.048. Due to the increasing vacancy defects, the density of ceramics sintered in N2 was smaller than that sintered in air. The ceramics sintered under N₂ have similar dielectric constant, and its Qf values are higher while x<0.016.