<title>Fabrication of high-performance PNN-PZT ceramic using microwave and hot-press hybrid sintering process</title>

It has been reported in the author's previous work that the hybrid sintering process, a combination of 28GHz microwave heating and hot-press, yields higher performance in the sintering of PZT ceramics than conventional technologies. The improvement of properties with the hybrid sintering process is due to the increase in the grain size and due to the suppression of Pb evaporation on account of reduction in sintering time. In this study, the hybrid sintering process was applied to the fabrication of PNN-PZT and the influence of the pressure and sintering temperature on the density, electro-mechanical coupling factor and the piezoelectric constants of the sintered specimens were extensively investigated. In the optimized sintering conditions, the maximum achieved value of the piezoelectric constant d31 was about 390 X 10-12 m/V, which is nearly 26 percent high than 310 X 10-12 m/V, the value of d31 of the conventionally sintered specimen. It can be concluded that the hybrid sintering process is an effective means to improve the performance of the materials of Pb extraction.© (2002) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.