Significantly enhanced dielectric properties of BaTiO3-based ceramics via synergetic grain size and defect engineering

As a dielectric material , BaTiO 3 -based ceramics are desirable for high performance ultra-thin multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) application. In this work, BaTiO 3 -based dielectric ceramics with superior dielectric properties were synthesized using a reducing atmosphere sintering process . It is found that the contribution of “wet" grain-boundary diffusion become significant as the oxygen partial pressure increases, resulting to a larger grain size and higher permittivity. Especially, for the specimen sintered in higher oxygen partial pressure , the stable temperature coefficient of capacitance (TCC) is dominated by irreversal domain due to the increase of super-lattice phase. Samples with higher oxygen partial pressure exhibit a higher permittivity of 2700 and better permittivity-temperature stability. Furthermore, ultra-thin MLCCs with thickness of 1 μm and capacitance of 10 μF and the TCC of X7R were successfully fabricated. This work provides a comprehensive explanation demonstrating upon the significant roles of grain size and defect engineering in the dielectric performance in BaTiO 3 -based ceramics, and points out an avenue to obtain excellent permittivity-temperature stability in ultra-thin MLCCs.