Investigation of thin film end-termination on multilayer ceramic capacitors

The thin film of silver, chromium and titanium as end-termination studies were performed on multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) based on ZnMgTiO3 + 0.25TiO2 (ZMT′) ceramic with Ag95–Pd05 internal electrodes. ZMT′ multilayer ceramic capacitors were prepared by tape casting, and Ag95–Pd05 paste was attached on the green foil of ceramics as an internal electrode. After lamination, the green chips were sintered at 900 °C for 2 h, then samples were sputtered the external electrodes of thin film as the end-termination, showing COG EIA specification (TCC within ±30 ppm °C−1 in the temperature range −55 °C to +125 °C). There is no extra curing process, so manufacturing cost could be saved and internal stress of the MLCCs may be reduced. To improve the adhesion between thin film end-termination and dielectric body, the chromium and titanium were applied as medium layer in this study. The mechanical and electrical properties of the MLCCs were investigated subsequently. The results showed that end-termination with titanium/silver and chromium/silver have good performances on mechanical properties of MLCC, but dielectric loss and impedance is a little bit higher compared to standard MLCC.