Journal Home > Volume 8 , Issue 2
Journal of Advanced Ceramics 2019, 8(2): 247-255 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-018-0310-4
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 13 June 2019

Influence of test procedure on dielectric breakdown strength of alumina

Show Author's Information Bjoern MIELLER( )
Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Division Advanced Technical Ceramics, 12200 Berlin, Germany
Keywords:
dielectric strength, dielectric breakdown, withstand voltage test, high AC voltage testing
Cite this article:
MIELLER B. Influence of test procedure on dielectric breakdown strength of alumina. Journal of Advanced Ceramics, 2019, 8(2): 247-255. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-018-0310-4
Download citation
EndNote(RIS)
BibTeX

408

Views

23

Downloads

Citations

10

Crossref

N/A

WoS

13

Scopus

0

CSCD

Abstract Full text About this article

Dielectric strength testing of ceramics can be performed with various setups and parameters. Comparisons of results from different sources are often not meaningful, because the results are strongly dependent on the actual testing procedure. The aim of this study is to quantify the influence of voltage ramp rate, electrode size, electrode conditioning, and sample thickness on the measured AC dielectric strength of a commercial alumina. Mean values, Weibull moduli, and failure probabilities determined in standardized short time tests are evaluated and related to withstand voltage tests. Dielectric strength values in the range from 21.6 to 33.2 kV∙mm-1 were obtained for the same material using different testing procedures. Short time tests resulted in small standard deviations (< 2 kV∙mm-1) and high Weibull moduli around 30, while withstand tests at voltage levels with low and virtual zero failure probability in short time tests resulted in large scatter of withstand time and Weibull moduli < 1. The strong decrease in Weibull moduli is attributed to progressive damage from partial discharge and depolarization during AC testing. These findings emphasize the necessity of a thorough documentation of testing procedure and highlight the importance of withstand voltage tests for a comprehensive material characterization.


menu
Abstract
Full text
Outline
About this article

Influence of test procedure on dielectric breakdown strength of alumina

Show Author's information Bjoern MIELLER( )
Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Division Advanced Technical Ceramics, 12200 Berlin, Germany

Abstract

Dielectric strength testing of ceramics can be performed with various setups and parameters. Comparisons of results from different sources are often not meaningful, because the results are strongly dependent on the actual testing procedure. The aim of this study is to quantify the influence of voltage ramp rate, electrode size, electrode conditioning, and sample thickness on the measured AC dielectric strength of a commercial alumina. Mean values, Weibull moduli, and failure probabilities determined in standardized short time tests are evaluated and related to withstand voltage tests. Dielectric strength values in the range from 21.6 to 33.2 kV∙mm-1 were obtained for the same material using different testing procedures. Short time tests resulted in small standard deviations (< 2 kV∙mm-1) and high Weibull moduli around 30, while withstand tests at voltage levels with low and virtual zero failure probability in short time tests resulted in large scatter of withstand time and Weibull moduli < 1. The strong decrease in Weibull moduli is attributed to progressive damage from partial discharge and depolarization during AC testing. These findings emphasize the necessity of a thorough documentation of testing procedure and highlight the importance of withstand voltage tests for a comprehensive material characterization.

Keywords: dielectric strength, dielectric breakdown, withstand voltage test, high AC voltage testing

References(23)

[1]
R Gerson, TC Marshall. Dielectric breakdown of porous ceramics. J Appl Phys 1959, 30: 1650-1653.
DOI Google Scholar
[2]
IO Owate, R Freer. AC breakdown characteristics of ceramic materials. J Appl Phys 1992, 72: 2418-2422.
DOI Google Scholar
[3]
A Kishimoto, K Koumoto, H Yanagida. Mechanical and dielectric failure of BaTiO3 ceramics. J Mater Sci 1989, 24: 698-702.
DOI Google Scholar
[4]
A Kishimoto, K Koumoto, H Yanagida. Comparison of mechanical and dielectric strength distributions for variously surface-finished titanium dioxide ceramics. J Am Ceram Soc 1989, 72: 1373-1376.
DOI Google Scholar
[5]
AL Young, GE Hilmas, SC Zhang, et al. Mechanical vs. electrical failure mechanisms in high voltage, high energy density multilayer ceramic capacitors. J Mater Sci 2007, 42: 5613-5619.
DOI Google Scholar
[6]
D Malec, V Bley, F Talbi, et al. Contribution to the understanding of the relationship between mechanical and dielectric strengths of alumina. J Eur Ceram Soc 2010, 30: 3117-3123.
DOI Google Scholar
[7]
L Haddour, N Mesrati, D Goeuriot, et al. Relationships between microstructure, mechanical and dielectric properties of different alumina materials. J Eur Ceram Soc 2009, 29: 2747-2756.
DOI Google Scholar
[8]
C Neusel, H Jelitto, D Schmidt, et al. Thickness-dependence of the breakdown strength: Analysis of the dielectric and mechanical failure. J Eur Ceram Soc 2015, 35: 113-123.
DOI Google Scholar
[9]
T Hoshina, M Yamazaki, H Takeda, et al. Dielectric breakdown mechanism of perovskite-structured ceramics. Additional Conferences (Device Packaging, HiTEC, HiTEN, & CICMT) 2015, 2015: 000116-000120.
DOI
[10]
M Touzin, D Goeuriot, HJ Fitting, et al. Relationships between dielectric breakdown resistance and charge transport in alumina materials—Effects of the microstructure. J Eur Ceram Soc 2007, 27: 1193-1197.
DOI Google Scholar
[11]
J Liebault, J Vallayer, D Goeuriot, et al. How the trapping of charges can explain the dielectric breakdown performance of alumina ceramics. J Eur Ceram Soc 2001, 21: 389-397.
DOI Google Scholar
[12]
Z Suo. Models for breakdown-resistant dielectric and ferroelectric ceramics. J Mech Phys Solids 1993, 41: 1155-1176.
DOI Google Scholar
[13]
GA Schneider. A Griffith type energy release rate model for dielectric breakdown under space charge limited conductivity. J Mech Phys Solids 2013, 61: 78-90.
DOI Google Scholar
[14]
C Neusel, H Jelitto, GA Schneider. Electrical conduction mechanism in bulk ceramic insulators at high voltages until dielectric breakdown. J Appl Phys 2015, 117: 154902.
DOI Google Scholar
[15]
C Neusel, GA Schneider. Size-dependence of the dielectric breakdown strength from nano-to millimeter scale. J Mech Phys Solids 2014, 63: 201-213.
DOI Google Scholar
[16]
PK Fischer, GA Schneider. Dielectric breakdown toughness from filament induced dielectric breakdown in borosilicate glass. J Eur Ceram Soc 2018, 38: 4476-4482.
DOI Google Scholar
[17]
M Touzin, D Goeuriot, C Guerret-Piécourt, et al. Alumina based ceramics for high-voltage insulation. J Eur Ceram Soc 2010, 30: 805-817.
DOI Google Scholar
[18]
V Fuertes, MJ Cabrera, J Seores, et al. Hierarchical micro-nanostructured albite-based glass-ceramic for high dielectric strength insulators. J Eur Ceram Soc 2018, 38: 2759-2766.
DOI Google Scholar
[19]
XY Ye, YM Li, JJ Bian. Dielectric and energy storage properties of Mn-doped Ba0.3Sr0.475La0.12Ce0.03TiO3 dielectric ceramics. J Eur Ceram Soc 2017, 37: 107-114.
DOI Google Scholar
[20]
QB Yuan, J Cui, YF Wang, et al. Significant enhancement in breakdown strength and energy density of the BaTiO3/ BaTiO3@SiO2 layered ceramics with strong interface blocking effect. J Eur Ceram Soc 2017, 37: 4645-4652.
DOI Google Scholar
[21]
BC Luo, XH Wang, EK Tian, et al. Enhanced energy-storage density and high efficiency of lead-free CaTiO3-BiScO3 linear dielectric ceramics. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2017, 9: 19963-19972.
DOI Google Scholar
[22]
W Lei, YY Yan, XH Wang, et al. Improving the breakdown strength of (Mg0.9Zn0.1)2(Ti1-xMnx)O4 ceramics with low dielectric loss. Ceram Int 2015, 41: 521-525.
DOI Google Scholar
[23]
ASTM D149-09(2013). Standard test method for dielectric breakdown voltage and dielectric strength of solid electrical insulating materials at commercial power frequencies. ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2013.
Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Rights and permissions

Publication history

Received: 20 September 2018
Revised: 03 December 2018
Accepted: 05 December 2018
Published: 13 June 2019
Issue date: June 2019

Copyright

© The author(s) 2019

Acknowledgements

The author likes to thank W. Guether and J. Biberstein for performing the numerous measurements and S. Benemann (BAM Division 6.1) for SEM analysis.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Return