Optimisation of new liquid-phase sintering aid for PZT

A new sintering aid designed for a commercial type I PZT (lead zirconate titanate) allows sintering at temperatures as low as 800/spl deg/C. The additive contains PbO and Cu/sub 2/O and works by forming a liquid phase. The amount of additive needed to reduce the sintering temperature below 900/spl deg/C causes a certain deterioration of the piezoelectric properties in comparison with the original composition, however. The present work describes the optimisation of the sintering aid in order to obtain low dielectric loss and high piezoelectric activity at sintering temperatures close to 1100/spl deg/C. This is particularly relevant to co-fired multilayer components.