2007 Volume 47 Issue 4 Pages 539-544
Characteristics and advantages of heating processing based on millimeter-wave are described from the standpoint of the interaction between electromagnetic energy and solid materials. High capabilities of the electromagnetic processing are indicated by exemplifying several successful results such as sintering of alumina and AlN and post-annealing of aerosol-deposited PZT films. In these examples, it is shown that well-characterized properties such as high thermal conductivity and high bending strength are obtained by the inherent effect in the millimeter-wave processing. In the millimeter-wave processing, high thermal conductive AlN with over 210 W/(m·K) can be synthesized by rapid sintering at lower temperature, compared with the conventional method. Suppression of the interfacial reaction between PZT film and substrate steel can also be attained using the millimeter-wave processing. It is explained that the high capabilities of applying millimeter-wave processing to smart materials synthesis originates from the non-thermal effects due to high frequency field of millimeter-wave.
