Effect of annealing temperature of a novel Sol–gel process on the electrical properties of low voltage ZnO-based ceramic films

The effect of annealing temperature on the electrical properties of low voltage ZnO-based ceramic films was studied by a novel sol–gel process. The experiment results show that Zn7Sb2O12 and ZnCr2O4 phase can form in a lower annealing temperature (550 °C) by the solution doping, and the pyrochlore phase is not detected by X-ray diffractometer (XRD) from 550 °C to 950 °C. Sb2O3 phase can change to spinel phase completely; Bi2O3 and ZnO may be vaporized when the annealing temperature reaches 750 °C. The ZnO-based ceramic films with nonlinear coefficient of 20, nonlinear voltage of 5 V and the leakage current density of 0.5 μA/mm2 can be gained at the proper annealing temperature.