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Time Domain Response of Electrical Ceramics Micro to Megaseconds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

F. A. Modine
F. A. Modine*
Affiliation:
Solid State Division, Oak Ridge National laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831–6030
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Abstract

The electrical properties of ceramics can be measured in either the time domain or in the frequency domain. But for electrically nonlinear ceramics such as varistors, time-domain measurements provide insights that are different and more relevant to material performance as well as being more physically incisive. This article focuses specifically on the electrical properties of ZnO varistors, but much of it is of relevance for other materials, in particular those materials with grain-boundary barriers and disordered ceramics or glasses. The interpretation of electrical measurements in the time domain is profoundly influenced by such practical matters as source impedance and waveform characteristics. Experimental results are presented for both high and low source impedance relative to that of a test varistor, and the difference in experimental difficulty and ease of interpretation is described. Time-domain measurements of capacitance and of the inductive response of varistors to large, fast electrical pulses are presented and their implications for varistor theory are given. Experimental evidence is given of short- and long-term memory in varistors. These memory phenomena are ascribed respectively to the life time of holes that become trapped in barriers and to polarization currents originating from deep electron traps. Polarization current measurements are presented for a wide range of time and temperature. The power-law time dependence and “universal” behavior of these currents is discussed. The exponent that describes the power law behavior is seen to change with temperature, and the change is interpreted as a double transition from diffusive to dispersive transport that originates with current from two different electron traps.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 500: Symposium EE – Electrically Based Microstructural Characterization II , 1997 , 203
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1998

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References

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