Effect of a BaTiO₃ nanoparticle additive on the quality of thin-film Ni electrodes in MLCC

Abstract

To increase the film quality of the nickel electrode in a multi-layer ceramic capacitor (MLCC), the BaTiO₃ particles are usually used as an additive material in the electrode paste. In this report, we investigated the effects of particle size (30-100 nm) and the amount (10-20% mass ratio to Ni) of BaTiO₃ nanoparticle additives on the quality of thin-film Ni electrodes, stated by a dry film density and Ni film coverage after a firing process. The use of 30 nm BaTiO₃ particles resulted in a high Ni film coverage larger than 75% using only 10 mass% of BaTiO₃ additive in the paste. Using larger particle sizes, a greater amount of BaTiO₃ additive was needed in order to obtain the same Ni film coverage. The use of a smaller particle size of BaTiO₃ nanoparticles leads to the increase of particle numbers for the same mass, resulting in effective BaTiO₃ nanoparticles surrounded on Ni particles. In addition, by decreasing the amount of BaTiO₃ additives, the BaTiO₃ absorbance by the dielectric layer was reduced, and, consequently, the increasing of dielectric layer thickness could also be minimized.