Component With Filled Layers and Electrical Contacts and Methods for Its Production

The invention relates to a filled layer component made out of a monolithic ceramic and having improved electrical contacts and particularly a capacitor, and to methods for the production of such a ceramic.

In the production of a filler layer component, and specifically of a filler layer capacitor, one normally starts with a sintered ceramic base element which is composed of dense and porous zones, e.g. alternating layers, and the porous zones of which are impregnated in a separate process step with a liquid metal or metal alloy. The ceramic elements required for this process are known in the art and may be produced according to German Patent DE-PS No. 24 62 007 or U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,879,645 and 4,353,957, which are incorporated herein by reference.

In the interest of a low process temperature, metals of low melting point, as e.g. lead and/or lead alloys, are preferred as the impregnating material. Due to the generally unfavorable wetting tensions between ceramic and impregnating material on the one hand, and the generally low height dimensions of the porous zones to be impregnated (e.g. 2 to 10 microns), on the other, pressure must be applied in the impregnating process. Such manufacturing methods are well known in the art.

In using the filler layer component as a capacitor, contacts of a suitable metallic material are applied to the ceramic body at the points of transfer of the impregnating metal. As a rule, silver based materials are chosen for this. If prior to the impregnation process these contacts are fired onto the ceramic surface, equally passable porosities must be provided which will prevent bleeding of the liquid impregnating material from the porous zones of the ceramic body when it is extracted from the impregnating bath. The reason for this is the tendency of conventional impregnating materials to form a partial alloy with the silver based material of the contacts, or at the least, result in a good wetting between the two materials. Alloy formation after a preceding dissolution reaction is desirable, however, to ensure a satisfactory passage of electric current, i.e. to ensure good bonding between the metallic filler in the porous zones and the contacts.

The dissolution reaction, however, has the disadvantage that during the pressure impregnation process the contacts are caused by the impregnating bath to undergo incipient dissolution to an impermissibly high degree and in the worst case are even almost detached.

In Great Britain Patent GB-A-No. 2104291, an aluminum containing glass frit is fired onto the ceramic body for the filler layer component before impregnation. While such a layer is resistant to the impregnating bath, it cannot be soldered, making it necessary to apply additional solderable layers on the first layer in subsequent operations.

In U.S. pat. No. 4,450,502 it is further proposed to apply on the ceramic body comprising silver or silver alloy and a glass frit, an external termination which is fired in and then coated with silver sulfide by a heat treatment at 350.degree. C. to 400.degree. C. with sulfur vapor or hydrogen sulfide vapor. Detachment of the silver layer from the ceramic body would thereby be avoided.

Thus, in the latter described process, additional steps must be carried out, and the substances used are highly toxic. During production of the terminations nascent hydrogen forms, which reduces the ceramic materials and may result in a worsening of the dielectric properties of the ceramic body.

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a structure and composition for the contacts so as to provide a good electrical bond to the metallic filler as well as ensuring resistance to detachment during the impregnating bath, and particularly in a lead or lead alloy bath.

According to the invention, this and other objects are achieved by an electronic component made out of a monolithic ceramic having alloyed electrical contacts. The component has a ceramic body containing dense and porous layers whch are impregnated by a filler layer component. The electrical contacts on the outer faces of the body contain enrichments of elemental constituents alloyed with the main elemental substance making up the contact. The alloyed constituents and substance form at least one intermetallic compound that is largely insoluble in the filler layer. The contacts preferably are made of gold, silver and/or copper and the enriching constituents preferably are made of indium, gallium and/or thallium.

In the invention, the contacts are advantageously formed on a silver basis. Alternatively, the contacts may be formed by gold or copper layers, and in particular copper together with silver may be suitable. On their free faces, i.e. on the outer sides, the contacts have enrichments (concentrations) of constituents from respective alloys. Preferably, the enrichment may be formed as a cover layer. Specifically, the enrichments may be intermetallic silver-indium compounds, which have, for example, the stoichiometric compositions AgIn.sub.2, Ag.sub.2 In or Ag.sub.3 In. Instead of indium or in combination with indium, gallium may be used as the constituent for the enrichments.

In a first manufacturing process for the filled layer component according to the invention, the contacts with the enrichments are applied on the ceramic layer structure before the impregnation process. Alternatively, in a second manufacturing process, the contacts with the enrichments may be applied during the impregnation process. In the latter case, in particular, lead indium alloys are used as impregnating material, with the impregnating material possibly containing also silver and other metallic additions.

Further details and advantages of the invention will be evident from the following figure description of embodiment examples with reference to the drawing.

FIGS. 1 to 3 are fragmentary sectional views of monolithic ceramic components in accordance with three embodiments of the present invention.

In the figures, identical parts are given the same reference symbols. The figures are described below in part jointly.

In each of the figures, a cutout from a filled layer component 1 is shown, disclosing a layer structure consisting of alternately dense and porous layers 2. If the porous layers are filled with metals and if the side faces of the component 1 are provided with metallic layers as contacts, capacitors can be realized due to the dielectric properties of the ceramic. To this end, the porous layers 2 must be filled with an impregnating material in a suitable manner. This is done in a manner known in the art, specifically, by pressure or centrifugal, preferably using lead materials.

In FIG. 1, a contact 10 is applied on component 1 as an outer electrode. The contact 10 consists of a cap 11 of porous silver, which by alloy formation is firmly bound to the lead to form an impregnating material for the filler of the porous layers 2. On the outside of the silver cap 11 a porous cover layer 12 of intermetallic silver indium compounds is applied, and in particular those having stoichiometric compositions AgIn.sub.2, Ag.sub.2 In or Ag.sub.3 In.

The contacts 10 are applied before the actual impregnation process by coating the ceramic body 1 twice. In a first coating operation, the silver cap 11 is produced, and in a second coating operation, the respective cover layer 12 of the silver indium compounds is produced. Producing such layers can be done in a simple manner by immersion in a liquid silver bath or in other respective metal solutions. In particular, a solution on a silver basis with 2 to 15% by weight indium has proven suitable. Also, a gallium compound may be present, which may have a content as high as 20%. The outside contacts 10, i.e. electrodes, thus produced have microporosities, so that the component 1 with the contacts 10 can be subjected to a pressure impregnation process.

During pressure impregnation with a lead alloy, for example, the contact 10 is largely protected against incipient dissolution by the Ag-In boundary layer 12. On the other hand, during pressure impregnation and simultaneous or subsequent heat treatment, alloy formation occurs between the impregnating material and the silver cap 11 of contact 10. Thus a sufficient eletrical bond from contact 10 to the inner lead filled porous layers 2 is achieved.

In FIG. 2, a pure, porous silver cap contact 20 is applied on component 1. These components are subjected to a pressure impregnation process, indium being added to the liquid impregnating material, i.e. the lead base melt. In the manner of filtering, the indium reacts with the silver particularly in the outer region 22 of contact 20, forming therein intermetallic phases, while in the region 21 of contact 20 primarily pure silver remains. In contrast to the embodiment according to FIG. 1, the regions are not clearly separated as distinct layers.

In FIG. 3, a component 1 is provided with a cap contact 30 of primarily homogeneous material. The material consists here of intermetallic silver indium compounds with an excess of silver. For this there is used in conventional manner a commercial silver indium paste which is mixed with a silver additive. Coating is accomplished, for example, by immersion and subsequent firing. Thus there results in the contact 30 a silver matrix 31 with a random distribution of fine silver indium particles 32.

Instead of applying the contacts by means of metallization pastes, coating by vapor deposition methods, e.g. sputtering, can be carried out.

In the described embodiments the enrichments in silver indium constituents provides sufficient resistance to detachment of the contacts during the actual impregnation process and at the same time an electrical bond is obtained during the impregnation or alternatively by heat treatment after the impregnation of an alloy to form a bond between the impregnating material and the material of the contacts.

Equally ood results are obtained when the contacts consist, instead of silver, of another metal of the first subgroup of the Periodic Table, e.g. gold, copper, and when other elements of the third subgroup of the Periodic Table are used instead of indium, e.g. gallium, etc. A crucial factor here is the formation of the intermetallic phases, which must be largely resistent in particular to lead as impregnating material as well as soluble in the material of the contacts.