Tape casting of borosilicate glass/Al2O3 composites for LTCC substrate with various relative molecular masses of PVB

The dispersion, stabilization and rheological properties of the slurry with various relative molecular masses of PVB were studied. The sintering properties, microstructure and dielectric properties of borosilicate glass/Al2O3 composites were also investigated. The intensities of the typical vibrating bands decrease with the decrease of the relative molecular mass of PVB, which demonstrates that the content of butyral groups in PVB binders decreases correspondingly, leading to a rapid decrease in the viscosity of the mixed slurry. The solid content of samples increases with the decrease of the relative molecular mass of PVB, and this further leads to the increase of tape thickness, bulk density and dried-shrinkage coefficient of tapes. The bulk density, relative density, three-point strength and dielectric constant of sintered samples increase with the increase of the solid content, and the shrinkage and dielectric loss decrease. By contrast, samples for PVB-5s exhibit better properties of a bulk density of 3.10 g/cm3, a relative density of 98.1%, a three-point strength of 208 MPa, a ɛr value of 8.01, a tanδ value of 7.6×10−4 at 10 MHz and a well matching with Ag electrodes.