Tunability and microwave dielectric properties of BaO–SrO–Nd2O3–TiO2 ceramics

Ferroelectrics such as barium–strontium titanates (BSTO) and Mg-doped BSTO are well known as promising candidates for the application in microwave tunable devices including phase shifters, filters, and others operating at microwave frequencies. In this study new bulk ceramics based on BaTiO3 (BTO)–SrTiO3 (STO) with addition of BaNd2Ti4O12 (BNT) solid solution was investigated. The phase correlations, size, and nature of boundaries between phases were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The effect of compositional change on the unit cell parameters of the perovskite phase, microwave dielectric properties, and tunability under DC field had been studied. The materials with dielectric constant ∼320–700, Qf = 1950–3000 GHz at 3.5 GHz and tunability ∼8.0–31.7% at E = 1 V/μm were achieved.