Effect of LiF addition on sintering behavior and dielectric breakdown mechanism of MgO-based microwave dielectric ceramics

Glass-free MgO-based microwave dielectric ceramics (1-x) wt% (0.98 MgO-0.02 Al2O3)-x wt% LiF (x = 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4) were synthesized where LiF and Al2O3 were utilized as sintering additive and reinforcement phase in MgO matrix respectively. It was found that ion substitution is apt to occur between LiF and MgO, leading to the formation of oxygen vacancies and MgF2. Nevertheless, different from ordinary liquid-phase sintering, morphologies of ceramics were distinctly altered with grains changing from polyhedron to sphere-like shape and densities underwent obvious decrease when excessive amount of LiF was introduced and we call it excessive liquid-phase sintering. Grain boundary weakening caused by this circumstance would exert an adverse effect on physical properties. Moreover, LiF addition dramatically reduced dielectric breakdown strength and altered the dielectric breakdown behavior of MgO-based ceramics, which is dominated by electrical breakdown mechanism. Combination of good properties were achieved in 1 wt% LiF modified MgO-based ceramics sintered at 950 °C which exhibited superior microwave properties (εr = 9.56, tanδ = 9.2 × 10−5, Qf = 124,600 GHz), high flexural strength (184.5 MPa), high thermal conductivity (21.3 W/(m⋅K)), high coefficient of thermal expansion (∼12 ppm/°C) and moderate electrical properties (Eb = 35.9 kV/mm, ρ = 4.9 × 1012 Ω cm).