Abstract

The properties of a ceramic material that make it suitable for a given electronic application are intimately related to such physical properties as crystal structure, crystallographic defects, grain boundaries, domain structure, microstructure, and macrostructure. The development of ceramics that possess desirable electronic properties requires an understanding of the relationship between material structural characteristics and electronic properties and how processing conditions may be manipulated to control structural features.

Ceramic insulators are materials used to support electrical conductors and to prevent the flow of electrical charge between them. Ceramic materials suitable for capacitor (charge storage) use are also dependent on the dielectric properties of the material. Materials that show an induced polarization (electric charge) resulting from an applied stress, are referred to as piezoelectric materials, and the effect is referred to as the direct piezoelectric effect. Pyroelectrics are a subset of piezoelectric materials. The most commercially important application that takes advantage of the pyroelectric effect in polycrystalline ceramics is infrared detection. Ferroelectrics, materials that display a spontaneous polarization in the absence of an applied electric field, also display pyroelectric and piezoelectric behavior. Magnetic ceramics or ferrites may be classified according to crystal structure and the type of magnetic properties. The most commonly used ferrites, the so-called soft ferrites, are used in soft magnet and low field telecommunication applications, low power transformers, television tube scanning yokes, recording heads, magnetic recording media

Varistors are devices that exhibit nonlinear current–voltage behavior. The majority of the electronic ceramics that are used for electronic applications crystallize in the perovskite structure.