• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.284-289
• /
• 2014

The effects of additives (Nb, Bi and Cr) on the microstructure, varistor properties, and aging behavior of V/Mn/Co/ La/Dy co-doped zinc oxide ceramics were systematically investigated. An analysis of the microstructure showed that all of the ceramics that were modified with various additives were composed of zinc oxide grain as the main phase, and secondary phases such as $Zn_3(VO_4)_2$, $ZnV_2O_4$, and $DyVO_4$. The $Bi_2O_3$-modified samples exhibited the lowest density, the $Nb_2O_5$-modified sample exhibited the largest average grain size, and the $Cr_2O_3$-modified samples exhibited the highest breakdown field. All additives improved the non-ohmic coefficient (${\alpha}$) by either a small or a large margin, and in particular an $Nb_2O_5$ additive noticeably increased the non-ohmic coefficient to be as large as 36. The $Bi_2O_3$-modified samples exhibited the highest stability with variation rates for the breakdown field and for the non-ohmic coefficient (${\alpha}$) of -1.2% and -26.3%, respectively, after application of a DC accelerated aging stress of 0.85 EB/$85^{\circ}C$/24 h.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.221-225
• /
• 2015

The sintering effect on the microstructure, electrical properties, and dielectric characteristics of ZnO-V₂O₅-MnO₂-Nb₂O₅-Dy₂O₃-based ceramics was investigated. With the increase of sintering temperature from 875 to 950℃, the density of the sintered pellets decreased from 5.57 to 5.45 g/cm³ and the average grain size increased from 4.3 to 10.9 μm. The breakdown field decreased noticeably from 6,095 to 996 V/cm with the increase of sintering temperature. The varistor ceramics sintered at 900℃ exhibited the best nonlinear properties: 39.2 in the nonlinear coefficient and 0.24 mA/cm² in the leakage current density. The dielectric constant increased sharply from 658.6 to 2,928.8 with the increase of sintering temperature. On the whole, the dissipation factor exhibited a fluctuation with the increase of the sintering temperature, and a minimum value of 0.284 at 900℃.