Ceramics for electronic components

A ceramic is a polycrystalline inorganic material with a complex microstructure of grains and grain boundaries, produced using a special technology known as ceramic technology. Its structure and microstructure are defined during the production cycle, which transforms raw materials, usually in powder form, into a dense, ideally pore-free material, whose properties are based on those of its grains, but also on its heterogeneity. The key technological phase in ceramic production is sintering, which is the temperature-atmosphere-time cycle during which grains initially brought into contact with each other by shaping operations bond as a result of the action of various transport mechanisms, and then acquire the desired microstructure.

The generic term "ceramics" covers fields as varied as traditional ceramics (refractories, sanitaryware, tiles and bricks, etc.) and so-called technical ceramics: ceramics used in the nuclear fuel cycle, ceramics with thermomechanical applications or ceramics with electronic applications.

The technologies used to produce these various components have many points in common, but specific application or design features can lead to a significantly different approach to the parameters to be studied and mastered in each particular case. These are, in fact, different technical fields, even if the production flowcharts are similar and knowledge of the others is essential for mastering and developing each field in its own right.

This specificity is essentially due to the fact that the desired properties of the material depend as much on its nature as on the shaping and sintering technology. As the properties sought are very different from one another, the philosophies leading to their achievement are equally applicable to the various families of ceramics for electronics, although it is often convenient to classify them together.

Ceramic technologies have been developed in traditional fields, as well as in components and materials for thermomechanical or nuclear applications, because they enable us to obtain objects of a given shape and functionality at a low price, or mechanical properties combined with, for example, a remarkable weight or resistance to high temperatures and/or a chemical environment, or they enable us to handle and use fissile elements. In the case of ceramics for electronics, on the other hand, it is directly the properties linked to the material structure and the possibilities of transforming these properties by, in particular, substitutions that are most often exploited, as well as the possibility offered by ceramic technology of producing complex microstructures possibly formed by assembling separate materials