High electrical resistivity of spark plasma sintered SiC ceramics with Al2O3 and Er2O3 as sintering additives

Electrical resistivity as high as 3.52 × 1011 Ω cm of SiC ceramic was obtained by spark plasma sintering with Al2O3 and Er2O3 as sintering additives. The interconnection and the amorphous nature of the grain boundary phase resulted from spark plasma sintering both contributed to the improvement of the electrical resistivity. The thermal conductivity of the SPS SiC ceramic was comparable with that of the pressureless liquid phase sintered (PLPS) SiC ceramic.