Tailoring sintering kinetics and dielectric properties of Li2SiO3 ceramics by CaO-B2O3-SiO2 glass dopant for LTCC substrate applications

In this work, a novel material candidate, containing Li2SiO3 (LS) ceramic and CaO-B2O3-SiO2 (CBS) glass for low-temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) application was developed via the traditional solid-state reaction process. It is shown that the addition of CBS glass significantly improves the sintering characteristics of LS + CBS glass-ceramic systems at low temperatures by lowering the sintering activation energy. Phase coexistence of the main crystalline phase of Li2SiO3 and minor trace of Li2Si2O5 phase was confirmed. The LS + 6 wt% CBS system presents excellent properties, sintered at 875 degrees C for 2 h: a epsilon(r) value of 6.28, a Q x f value about 3527 GHz, a flexural strength 272 MPa, a CTE value of 7.35 x 10(-6)/degrees C, and a thermal conductivity lambda > 10 W/m/K, denoting its promising future for LTCC substrate application.