In-situ synchrotron x-ray transmission microscopy of the sintering of multilayers

Abstract

This letter reports on in-situ characterization of the high temperature sintering of multilayer ceramic capacitors by high-resolution synchrotron x-ray imaging. Microstructural evolution was obtained in real time by a continuous recording of 2-dimensional radiographs. Anisotropic strains were measured for different layers. Quantification of defects was conducted with 3-dimensional nano-computed tomography. These in-situ observations prove that electrode discontinuities occur at the early stage of sintering and originate from initial heterogeneities linked to the particulate nature of the starting powders.