Preparation of Sol-Gel-Derived CaO-B2O3-SiO2 Glass/Al2O3 Composites with High Flexural Strength and Low Dielectric Constant for LTCC Application.

Abstract

Low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) substrate materials are widely applied in electronic components due to their excellent microwave dielectric properties. However, the absence of LTCC materials with a lower dielectric constant and higher mechanical strength restricts the creation of integrated and minified electronic devices. In this work, sol-gel-derived CaO-B2O3-SiO2 (CBS) glass/Al2O3 composites with high flexural strength and low dielectric constant were successfully prepared using the LTCC technique. Among the composites sintered at different temperatures, the composites sintered at 870 °C for 2 hours possess a dielectric constant of 6.3 (10 GHz), a dielectric loss of 0.2%, a flexural strength of 245 MPa, and a CTE of 5.3 × 10-6 K-1, demonstrating its great potential for applications in the electronic package field. By analyzing the CBS glass' physical characteristics, it was found that the sol-gel-derived glass has an extremely low dielectric constant of 3.6 and does not crystallize or react with Al2O3 at the sintering temperature, which is conducive to improving the flexural strength and reducing the dielectric constant of CBS glass/Al2O3 composites.