LAUSR

Abstract CuNiZn ferrites are polycrystalline ceramic materials that are used widely in electronic devices for a number of reasons, including their high permeability in the RF frequency region, electrical resistivity, mechanical hardness and chemical stability. One of their main applications is in the production of specimens to prevent possible interferences between electronic devices, thanks to their ability to absorb electromagnetic waves. However, their electromagnetic properties are not solely dependent on their chemical composition, but also on the microstructure of the final piece (relative density or total porosity, grain size distribution, pore size distribution, the nature of the grain boundary, presence of secondary phases, dopants, etc.) and, therefore, on the morphology and size of the starting particles, and the processing method. The microstructure of the sintered specimens was designed in such a way as to optimize the electromagnetic properties of this ferrite. The solid-state sintering stage was also modeled with this optimization in mind. This sintering model enabled to propose the material transport mechanisms that controlled the densification and grain-growth rates, as well as the relative rates of these two simultaneous processes. The established relationships facilitate the design of a thermal cycle suitable for the manufacture of ferrite pieces with maximum relative density and the necessary microstructure. Together with the pre-configured chemical composition, the idea is that this ensures a strong set of final electromagnetic properties. The electromagnetic properties of the sintered ferrites were observed to improve as sintered relative density and average grain size increased, provided there was no evidence of exaggerated grain growth. In this sense, it seems there is a threshold of the grain size as of which the electromagnetic properties of the sintered specimens get worse. A linear relationship was observed between the imaginary part of the complex magnetic permeability and average grain size, provided each of the different magnetization mechanisms contributing to the complex permeability of the ferrite are taken into account (i.e. spin rotation and wall motion mechanisms).