Abstract
Electrical properties of ZnO ceramics based on Bi oxide was investigated in relation to sintering temperature. In the temperature range >$1150^{\circ}C$ to >$1350^{\circ}C$ the grain size increased from 9.mu.m to 20.mu.m when the sintering temperature was raised. The leakage current in the low voltage range increased as the potential barrier decreases, which is caused by increasing the grain size at high temperature. The dielectric characteristics of the ZnO ceramics was also affected by sintering temperature. Large dielectric constant was attributed, to the grainboundary layer of polycrystalline ZnO ceramics and decreasing grainboundary width. The variation of breakdown voltage with sintering temperature was attributed to the change of the donor concentration in the ZnO grain and grain size. The results showed that breakdown voltage increased decreasing grain size and donor concentration. Nonohmic coefficient was associated with the lower breakdown voltage per grainboundary layer due to the grain growth and higher donor concentration.
