Dielectric properties of lead alkaline-earth zirconate at microwave frequencies

Dielectric properties of alkaline-earth-substituted PbZrO3 ceramics up to microwave frequencies were investigated. Although there were no preferable characteristics in the Ba or Sr-substituted system, the ceramics in a (PbCa)ZrO3 system showed not only high dielectric constants in the range of 100 to 118, but also high Q values of 1000 to 1150 and small temperature coefficients of resonant frequency of 0 to 30 ppm/°C. The crystal structure of the Ca-substituted ceramics was also investigated by X-ray powder diffraction. The structure changed from PbZrO3-type orthorhombic to CaZrO3-type orthorhombic through cubic and rhombohedral with increasing Ca substitution. Coaxial dielectric resonators made of the selected above material had Q values in the range of 430 to 450 at the 900 MHz band.