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[July 2000]
Electro-Ceramics can be made smaller, better & faster with Microwaves
A new way of firing high-tech ceramics promises electronic components which are smaller, lighter, more reliable, cheaper and faster to make than ever before.
UK energy specialist EA Technology has achieved the breakthrough by combining microwave energy with the radiant heating conventionally employed to sinter ceramics used by the mufti-billion dollar electronics industry.
The company has found that a variety of ceramic materials can be sintered at faster rates using microwave-assisted heating, compared with radiant-only firing.
More importantly, hybrid firing improves ceramic microstructures, with a finer gain size and fewer cracking faults - giving designers the opportunity to specify high-quality components which are smaller and lighter than possible at present.
Dr David Hodgett, managing director of EA Technology's Process Innovation business, said: "Hybrid firing has enormous promise in the manufacture of electroceramics for the computer, telecommunications, aerospace and consumer electronics industries - especially where light weight or portability are important."
"Having successfully developed the process to the pilot kiln stage, we are keen to talk with manufacturers who want to join us to exploit its full commercial potential."
The technique has been developed under a three year project entitled "Enhanced Material Processing of Electroceramics for use in Electronic Components", run by EA Technology in association with UMIST under the Postgraduate Training Partnership (PTP) programme (a joint DTI/EEPSRC initiative).
Hybrid firing also lowers the temperature at which sintering occurs and achieves more rapid cycle times than conventional kilns.
More details from www.eatechnology.com.
ENDS