• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.40 no.11
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• pp.1067-1072
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• 2003

The electrical stability of the varistor ceramics composed of Zn-Pr-Co-Cr-Dy oxides-based varistors was investigated at 0.0∼2.0 mol% Dy$_2$O$_3$ content under DC accelerated aging stress. The ceramic density was increased up to 0.5 mol% Dy$_2$O$_3$ whereas further addition of Dy$_2$O$_3$ decreased sintered ceramic density. The density sailently affected the stability due to the variation of conduction path. The nonlinearity of varistor ceramics was greatly improved above 45 in the nonlinear exponent and below nearly 1.0 ${\mu}$A by incorporating Dy$_2$O$_3$. Under 0.95 V$\_$1mA/150$^{\circ}C$/24 h stress state, the varistor ceramics doped with 0.5 mol% Dy$_2$O$_3$ exhibited the highest electrical stability, in which the variation rates of varistor voltage, nonlinear exponent, and leakage current were -0.9%, -14.4%, and +483.3%, respectively. The variation rates of relative permittivity and dissipation factor were +7.1% and +315.4%, respectively. The varistors with further addition of Dy$_2$O$_3$ exhibited very unstable state resulting in the thermal runaway due to low density.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.969-976
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• 2011

In this study we aims to evaluate the effects of 1/3 mol% $Co_3O_4$ addition on the reaction, microstructure development, resultant electrical properties, and especially the bulk trap and grain boundary properties of $ZnO-Bi_2O_3-Sb_2O_3$ (Sb/Bi=2.0, 1.0, and 0.5) system (ZBS). The samples were prepared by conventional ceramic process, and characterized by XRD, density, SEM, I-V, impedance and modulus spectroscopy (IS & MS) measurement. In addition of $Co_3O_4$ in $ZnO-Bi_2O_3-Sb_2O_3$ (ZBSCo), the phase development, density, and microstructure were controlled by Sb/Bi ratio. Pyrochlore on cooling was reproduced in all systems. The more homogeneous microstructure was obtained in ZBSCo (Sb/Bi=1.0) system. In ZBSCo, the varistor characteristics were improved drastically (non-linear coefficient ${\alpha}$=23~50) compared to ZBS. Doping of $Co_3O_4$ to ZBS seemed to form $V^{\cdot}_o$(0.33 eV) as dominant defect. From IS & MS, especially the grain boundary of Sb/Bi=0.5 system is composed of electrically single barrier (0.93 eV) and somewhat sensitive to ambient oxygen with temperature.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.319-320
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• 2006

In order to improve the ESD(Electrical Static Discharge) resistance of multilayer chip varistors, we have investigated ZnO-$Pr_6O_{11}$ based chip varistor by applying tape casting technology, whose fundamental component were ZnO : $Pr_6O_{11}$ :$Co_3O_4$: $Y_2O_3$: $Al_2O_3$=93.67: 2.53:2.53:1.25 : 0.015 (wt %). The effect of sintering condition on the multilayer chip varistors and electric properties was studied. The electrical properties and ESD resistance of multilayer chip varistor could be influenced the sintering temperature and condition.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1998.07d
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• pp.1282-1284
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• 1998

ZnO Varistor is an electronic ceramic device for controlling the surge voltage from low level to high. In this study, the puncture mechanism occurring in ZnO varistor is investigated, and the simulation for restraining the puncture by formulating the relation between the applied voltage and the increase of the inside temperature of grain is applied. In order to simulate the cause of the current localization which is the primary factor causing the puncture, the localization phenomenon and the temperature distribution induced by the localized current, the Voronoi network is applied, which can realize the structure of the practical varistor better than the established simple network. Using the current through each grain and the voltage applied to the grain boundary obtained from that simulation, the Joule heating energy is calculated and the phenomenon that the puncture occurs can be analyzed quantitatively by simulating the electric and thermal characteristics according to the externally applied pulsed voltage.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.11
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• pp.854-858
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• 2010

In this study, we have investigated the effects of Cr dopant on the sintering and electrical properties of ZnO-$Sb_2O_3$ (ZS) ceramics for varistor application. Spinel phases including $\alpha-$ and $\beta$-type was formed at ZS system and $\alpha$-spinel was stabilized by Cr doping in ZS system. Densification of ZS and ZSCr system was retarded to $1000^{\circ}C$ by the formation of spinel at $800^{\circ}C$. The morphology and its distribution of spinel phases in ZS system was homogeneous but disturbed by Cr doping. In ZSCr the densification of ZnO compared with ZS system was more retarded by low concentration of Zn interstitial defects induced by Cr doping in addition to the effect of spinel phase formation. The defects in each system were identified as attractive coulombic center (ZS: 0.13 eV, ZSCr: 0.12 eV) and singly charged oxygen vacancy $V_0^{\cdot}$ (ZSCr: 0.33 eV). In all ZS and ZSCr system have week varistor behavior by the formation of double Schottky barrier at grain boundary but its stability of barrier was very sensitive to sintering temperature.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.152-155
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• 2009

The microstructure and the electrical properties of a ZnO varistor, which was composed of a ZnO-$Bi_2O_3$-$Sb_2O_3$-CoO- $MnO_2$ -NiO-$Nd_2O_3$ system, were investigated at various $Y_2O_3$ addition concentrations. $Y_2O_3$ played a role in the inhibition of the grain growth. As the $Y_2O_3$ content increased, the average grain size decreased from $6.8{\mu}m$ to $4{\mu}m$, and the varistor voltage($V_{1mA}$) greatly increased from 275 to 400 V/mm. The nonlinearity coefficient ($\alpha$) decreased from 72 to 65 with increasing $Y_2O_3$ amount. On the other hand, the leakage current ($I_L$) increased from 0.2 to 0.9 ${\mu}A$. These results confirmed that doping the varistors with $Y_2O_3$ is a promising production route for production of a higher fine-grained varistor voltage ($V_{1mA}$) which can dramatically reduce the size of the varistors.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.78-80
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• 2001

DC accelerating aging characteristics of praseodymium-based ZnO varistors doped with $Dy_2O_3$ were investigated with sintering time. The varistor sintered for 1h exhibited the highest nonlinearity, with a nonlinear exponent of 66.61 and a leakage current of $1.16{\mu}A$, whereas they did not exhibit relatively high stability. The varistor sintered for 2h having nonlinear exponent of 54.81 and leakage current of $2.52{\mu}A$ showed very excellent stability, which the variation rates of varistor voltage, nonlinear exponent, and leakage current are -1.19%, -4.00%, and +75.79% for 2h, under DC accelerated aging stress, such as ($0.85\;V_{1mA}/115^{\circ}C$/24h)+($0.90\;V_{1mA}/120^{\circ}C$/24h)+($0.95\;V_{1mA}/125^{\circ}C$/24h)+($0.95\;V_{1mA}/150^{\circ}C$/24h).

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1998.11a
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• pp.263-266
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• 1998

ZnO varistors have an excellent non-linearity and a large surge-energy absorption capability. For these reasons, the ZnO varistors are widely used to protect electrical/electronic circuits from an abnormal surge and/or noise signal. In order to obtain the low-voltage varistor with randomly distributed large seed grain within bulk, the ZnO varistors are made by a new three-composition seed grain method. And a conduction mechanism of varistors, which was observed in the temperature range of 30 ∼ 120$^{\circ}C$ and at the current range of 10$\^$-8/∼10$^2$ A/cm$^2$, was classified by the three regions of different mechanism when the current was increased.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.307-312
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• 2018

Liquid phases in ZnO varistors cause more complex phase development and microstructure, which makes the control of electrical properties and reliability more difficult. Therefore, we have investigated 2 mol% $CaCO_3$ doped $ZnO-Co_3O_4-Cr_2O_3-La_2O_3$ (ZCCLCa) bulk ceramics as one of the compositions without liquid phase sintering additive. The results were as follows: when $CaCO_3$ is added to ZCCLCa ($644{\Omega}cm$) acting as a simple ohmic resistor, CaO does not form a secondary phase with ZnO but is mostly distributed in the grain boundary and has excellent varistor characteristics (high nonlinear coefficient ${\alpha}=78$, low leakage current of $0.06{\mu}A/cm^2$, and high insulation resistance of $1{\times}10^{11}{\Omega}cm$). The main defects $Zn_i^{{\cdot}{\cdot}}$ (AS: 0.16 eV, IS & MS: 0.20 eV) and $V_o^{\bullet}$ (AS: 0.29 eV, IS & MS: 0.37 eV) were found, and the grain boundaries had 1.1 eV with electrically single grain boundary. The resistance of each defect and grain boundary decreases exponentially with increasing the measurement temperature. However, the capacitance (0.2 nF) of the grain boundary was ~1/10 lower than that of the two defects (~3.8 nF, ~2.2 nF) and showed a tendency to decrease as the measurement temperature increased. Therefore, ZCCLCa varistors have high sintering temperature of $1,200^{\circ}C$ due to lack of liquid phase additives, but excellent varistor characteristics are exhibited, which means ZCCLCa is a good candidate for realizing chip type or disc type commercial varistor products with excellent performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.375-378
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• 2004

ZnO varistor ceramics were fabricated with variation of addition of glass-frit amount and the sintering temperature was $1150^{\circ}C$. The average grain sizes were showed decreased from $8.6\;{\mu}m$ to $10\;{\mu}m$, and varistor voltages were decreased from 506 V to 460 V by added amount of glass-frit. Nonlinear coefficient ${\alpha}$, of all were with increasing the amount of glass-frit more than 60, in case of added on 0.03wt% glass-frit was 83. And leakage current were less than $1{\mu}A$ with applied at 82% of varistor voltage. The clamping voltage ratio of the specimes added 0.03wt% glass-frit was 1.41 at applied 25A $[8/20{\mu}s]$. In the specimen added 0.03wt% glass-frit, endurence of surge current and deviation of varistor voltage were $6200A/cm^2$, $\Delta-1.67%$, respectively.