Influence of coarse particles on microstructure of aluminum nitride sintered body

Aluminum nitride (AlN) is used for quick diffusion and elimination of heat that is generated from electronic devices, such as power modules used for hybrid cars and micro processing units (MPUs) of computers. AlN provides high thermal conductivity, and it is known that its sintering performance and sintered body characteristics vary with the quality of AlN raw powder. When two types of commercially available AlN raw powder produced by the same reductive nitriding method were compared, the sintering performance and the thermal conductivity of sintered compacts processed from low-price AlN material powder were found to be lower than those of sintered compacts processed from high-price, high-purity, evenly granulated, and fine AlN material powder. As one of the causes of the foregoing, the effect of coarse particles contained in AlN material powder was investigated. The investigation results indicated that the coarse particles were AlN and the powder with the coarse particles removed by sifting out with sieves provided sintering performance and sintering behavior similar to those of high-price and high-purity AlN material powder. It was therefore found that the coarse particle constituted a sintering inhibiting factor. This paper reports the investigation results.