Abstract
Studies on the sintering behavior, including densification and grain growth of NiCuZn ferrite ceramics were carried out in a microwave field of 2.45 GHz. Compared to conventional sintering, the shrinkage curves of a NiCuZn ferrite system processed by microwave sintering were observed to have shifted towards approximately 100°C lower temperatures. From the analysis of shrinkage data, it was found that the effective activation energy for diffusion under the microwave sintering was lower than those controlled under conventional sintering. In addition, pressed toroidal inductors and multilayer chip inductors (MLCI) have also been sintered by the microwave processing. Although heating rate of the microwave sintering was faster than that of the conventional sintering, the microwave sintered samples were found to be without any visible cracks. The total sintering time was reduced significantly in comparison with the conventional sintering. In both the sintered toroidals and MLCI samples, comparable magnetic properties were obtained.