Electroceramics for sensors and actuators

Electroceramics is a class of very important and versatile ceramic materials whose electrical properties are exploited to make devices for a number of advanced applications for civil and military use. These materials include: ferrites, ferroelectrics, piezoelectrics, pyroelectrics, microwave dielectrics etc. Their physical and chemical properties are sensitive to a change in the environment such as temperature, pressure, electric field, magnetic field etc. They form essential component of any smart system. Most of the practical applications are based on bulk ceramics. A material can be tailored by suitable substitutions to get desired characteristics to meet specific requirements. Though the material properties are predominantly governed by composition, processing methodology plays an important role to control material performance and thus optimization of processing parameters become very crucial. Here development of microwave ferrites and dielectrics for phase shifters, prizoelectrics for actuator applications and pyroelectrics for IR detectors are described. Some of the novel material processing techniques shall also be presented.