New LTCC materials: From fundamental to applied research

Over the last twenty years, low-temperature co-firing ceramic (LTCC) technology has advanced to such an extent that it now allows the integration of a variety of passive components within the LTCC module. However, to achieve better performance some of them are still mounted as discrete components on the top of the module. An example of this type of component is a capacitor. In principle, no technological or design obstacles exist that would prevent the integration of capacitors into the module. The only problem is a lack of suitable LTCC material that exhibits the proper dielectric characteristics and is compatible with current LTCC materials and technology. Because the NP0-type capacitors represent the largest group of capacitors used with LTCC modules for RF applications we started the development of an NP0-type ceramic layer suitable for direct implementation with existing LTCC production lines. In this talk an example of such development will be presented where the very fundamental research has successfully been upgraded with an applied research and the new functional LTCC layers have been developed. They are characterized by K80, temperature stability, low dielectric loss and cosinterability with commercial low K tapes and silver electrode. The review of all the material properties relevant for the existing LTCC technology shows the possibility of a direct integration of the developed NP0-capacitor layer into the current LTCC modules.