Abstract
Post-firing process of electronic ceramic, such as electroding and encapsultion with resin, often causes damage by thermal shock. The thermal shock behavior of $BaTiO_3$ ceramics was investigated by the down-quench test, where the relative strength retained is determined after the sample is quenched from an elevated temperature into a fixed temperature bath. The critical temperature drop, $\DeltaTc$, was evaluated for three kinds of sintered $BaTiO_3$ ceramics, which were formed by extrustioin, uniaxial pressing using granules, and uniaxial pressing using powders. A drastic loss in strength caused by microcracking was observed for the specimens quenched with $\DeltaT\geq150^{\circ}C$. This concentp can be adopted as a method of the quality control by monitoring the sudden drop of the strength of capacitor products after each exposure to heat.