Cd2+-enhanced the structure, electrical and magnetic properties of low-temperature sintered NiCuZn ferrites

Ferrite materials are urgently demanded in high-frequency miniaturized power electronics for their high electromagnetic properties and high electrical resistivity. However, traditional NiZn ferrites are faced with low resistivity and high loss at low-temperature sintering, which severely restrict their applications. In this study, CdO was substituted into Ni0.22Cu0.2Zn0.58Fe2O4 ferrites at a presintered stage to refine the grain size and to achieve superior performance at low-temperature sintering. Interestingly, the electrical, magnetic and gyromagnetic properties of the NiCuZn ferrites exhibited a strong dependence on the concentration of Cd2+ ions. The Cd2+ ions entered into the lattice and substituted for Fe3+ at the octahedral site. SEM image results showed that CdOsubstituted NiCuZn ferrites for the first sintering stage possess inhibition of abnormal grain growth, which can effectively solve the problem of shrinkage and grain compaction of ferrite materials in LTCC technology. Furthermore, to promote the grain growth at low sintering temperature, the optimized Bi2O3 additives were added at final sintering stage. The resistivity of the optimized Cd2+ ions is significantly enhanced from 2.41 x 108 omega cm to 8.51 x 108 omega cm. Finally, the NiCuZnCd (x = 0.15)-1.2 wt% Bi2O3 ferrites with the highest densification possess rho = 8.51 x 108 omega cm, epsilon ' = 18, tan delta epsilon = 6.0 x 10-3, mu ' = 81, fr = 117 MHz, tan delta mu = 4.8 x 10-2 and Delta H = 281 Oe. This work provides a new doping method for the design of the high frequency LTCC device.