Effect on the grain size of single-mode microwave sintered NiCuZn ferrite and zinc titanate dielectric resonator ceramics.

TLDR: Microwave sintering of materials of these two classes helps in understanding the variation in dielectric and magnetic characteristics with respect to the change in grain size and the presence of small percentage of TiO2 is observed to achieve the temperature stable resonant frequency.

Abstract: Microwave sintering of materials significantly depends on dielectric, magnetic and conductive losses. Samples with high dielectric and magnetic loss such as ferrites could be sintered easily. But low dielectric loss material such as dielectric resonators (paraelectrics) finds difficulty in generation of heat during microwave interaction. Microwave sintering of materials of these two classes helps in understanding the variation in dielectric and magnetic characteristics with respect to the change in grain size. High-energy ball milled Ni0.6Cu0.2Zn0.2Fe1.98O4-δ and ZnTiO3 are sintered in conventional and microwave methods and characterized for respective dielectric and magnetic characteristics. The grain size variation with higher copper content is also observed with conventional and microwave sintering. The grain size in microwave sintered Ni0.6Cu0.2Zn0.2Fe1.98O4-δ is found to be much small and uniform in comparison with conventional sintered sample. However, the grain size of microwave sintered sa...