Effects of rare earth oxide additives on the thermal behaviors of aluminum nitride ceramics

Abstract

The effects of Y2O3 and Er2O3 on the sintering behaviors, thermal properties and microstructure of AlN ceramics were investigated. The experimental results show that the sintering temperature can be decreased; the relative density and thermal behavior can be improved by adding rare earth oxide in AlN ceramics. For AlN ceramics with 3 wt.% Er2O3 additive, the relative density is 98.8%, and the thermal conductivity reaches 106 W·m−1·K−1. The microstructure research found that no obvious aluminum erbium oxide was found in AlN ceramics doped with 3 wt.% Er2O3, which favored the improvement of the thermal conductivity of AlN ceramics.