Abstract
This review article on metal/ceramic joining is subdivided into the description of research activities in the fields of active metal brazing and diffusion bonding published in the last decade. Informations are given on active metal brazing of oxide, nitride, and carbide ceramics and on diffusion bonding of alumina, zirconia, magnesia, silicon nitride, aluminum nitride and silicon carbide ceramics to metals. Ultra high vacuum diffusion bonding and experiments using the model combination Nb/alumina are also regarded. Emphasis is laid on a concise reproduction of experimental data concerning the bonding conditions and the determintion of bond strength. The review demonstrates that much effort was devoted to studies on the formatin of interfacial reaction layers and on the efficiency of interlayers additonally introduced between the ceramic and the metal part to reduce internal stresses caused by thermal expansion misfit of the materials to be bonded.
