Dependence of Sintered Electrode Ni Paste on Dispersed Ni Paste and Ni Powder Properties.

We evaluated the characteristics of Ni paste used for internal electrodes of multilayer ceramic chip capacitors (MLCs). The effects of dispensability of BaTiO3 powder in Ni paste and Ni powder properties on sintering characteristics of electrode films were studied. The experimental results revealed that an improvement of dispensability of BaTiO3 suppressed shrinkage of the films. It was observed that properties of Ni powder influenced on the shrinkage of electrode films, i.e., Ni powder prepared by the WCP method showed a higher shrinkage than that of the powder made by the CVD method. The similar results were observed on the surface microstructure of sintered electrode films by SEM measurements.