SBIR-STTR Award

Sensors, capacitors, and conducting features such as resistors and capacitors on circuit boards are produced from metal and ceramic powders 1-12 These powders are manufactured by liquid phase precipitation routes which often start with reduction of metal salts or by solid-state routes where solid reactants are mixed, heated and then milled. The solid-state processing is generally repeated several times to obtain hamogeneous materials which are then milled down to the final particle sizes. Milling is also required for most liquid phase routes to ceramics. As a result of the milling, the particles usually have wide size distributions, high impurity levels, and large particle size. 1-3 The demand for improved metal and ceramic powder properties in order to produce smaller feature sizes in circuit boards with improved properties is increasing. Metal (Ag, Pd. Ag/Pd, Ni, Cu. Pt. Au) and ceramic (metal ruthenates) powders with well-controlled properties are needed for thick film pastes.1-3 The desired powder properties include controlled size in the micron and submicron range,controlled elemental and phase composition and high purity. These powder characteristics result in lower laydswns, better yields in manufacture of multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) and the use of less precious metal. The problem with the current technology for producing these materials is that it cannot deliver the quality needed and as a result, there is a drive towards new processes capable of producing powders with these characteristics. This proposed research will address this problem through development of an economical and environmentally benign technique for producing composite metal powders with superior properties that may revolutiQnize the fabrication of multilayer capacitors using thick film pastes. The success of this technology is of critical strategic importance for the united states. The best Ag/Pd and Pd Powder produced in the world are made in Japan by Shoei. Shoei does not sell to most U.S. MLCC manufacturers putting them at a great disadvantage. rhe lack of the highest quality powders now and in the future will increase our reliance Dn Japanese technology at a minimum and put the U.S. further behind in this c

Keywords:
Composite Powder, Mlcc, Palladium

The Phase I BMDO SBIR entitled "Advanced Metal Powder Manfacture for Multilayer Ceramic Capicitor(MLCC) Applications" focused on the preparation of matal/metal oxide (M/MOx) composite powders with all the powder characteristics required foradvanced MLCC applications. The awardee, NanochemResearch, Inc. (NRI) concluded a preliminaryfeasibility study of the production of thesecomposite powders by an advanced materials synthesis technique, spray pyrolysis and isproposing the scale-up and commercialization ofspray pyrolysis and the composite powders for MLCCmanufacture in this Phase II proposal.There is a strong demand for composite metal/metaloxide powders for partial replacement ofconventional metal powders in MLCC's which willlead to matched shrinkage, controlled sinteringand ultimetly higher manufacturing yields andlower manufactruing costs. Current metal powder sare manufactured by liquid phase methods which donot allow for the preparation of compositematerials.MIR is developing spray pyrolysis as analternative powder manfacturing method becausespray pyrolysis is the only method which has theability to produce these materials and control thekey powder characteristics which are crucial tohigher performance, lower cost MLCC's. The metalpowder market for MLCC's is a $500M/year marketbased primarily in Japan.The introduction of composite powders produced byspray pyrolysis have the potential to outperformeven the best Japanese powders leading to aparadigm shift in the metal powder and MLCC marketstructure away from Japan toward the U.S.

Keywords:
Mlcc, Spray Pyrolysis, Composite Powder