Recently, active research has been conducted to enhance the power characteristics and thermal stability of lithiumion batteries (LiBs) by modifying separators using a ceramic coating method. However, since the thermal properties and surface features of the separator vary depending on the characteristics of the ceramic powders applied to the separator, it is crucial to manufacture ceramic powders optimized for the separator’s performance. In this study, we evaluated the characteristics of three types of α-alumina (A-1, A-2, and A-3) produced with varying dispersant contents and milling times, in addition to commercial α-alumina (AES-11). Subsequently, the optimized powders (A-3) were coated onto the separator using an aqueous binder for comparison with the characteristics of an AES-11 coated separator and an uncoated PE separator. The A-3 coated separator improved electrolyte wettability with a low contact angle (44.69°) and increased puncture strength (538 gf). Furthermore, it exhibited excellent thermal stability, with a shrinkage value of 5.64% when exposed to 140℃ for 1 hour, compared to the AES- 11 coated separator (6.09%) and the bare PE separator (69.64%).

Integrating dielectric materials into LTCC is a convenient method to increase the integration density in electronic circuits. To enable co-firing of the high-k and low-k dielectric LTCC materials in a multi-material hetero-laminate, the shrinkage characteristics of both materials should be similar. Moreover, thermal expansion mismatch between materials during co-firing should be minimized. The alternating stacking of an LTCC with silica filler and that with calcium-zirconate filler was observed to examine the use of the same glass in different LTCCs to minimize the difference in shrinkage and thermal expansion coefficient. For the LTCC of silica filler with a low dielectric constant and that of calcium zirconate filler with a high dielectric constant, the amount of shrinkage was examined through a thermomechanical analysis, and the predicted appropriate fraction of each filler was applied to green sheets by tape casting. The green sheets of different fillers were alternatingly laminated to the thickness of 500 ㎛. As a result of examining the junction, it was observed through SEM that a complete bonding was achieved by constrained sintering in the structure of ‘calcium zirconate 50 vol%-silica 30 vol%-calcium zirconate 50 vol%’.

We investigated the structure of an ultra-thin insulating board with low thermal conductivity along z-axis, which was based on the idea of void layers created during the glass infiltration process for the zero-shrinkage low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology. An alumina and four glass powders were chosen and prepared as green sheets by the tape casting method. After comparison of the four glass powders, bismuth glass was selected for the experiment. Since there is no notable reactivity between alumina and bismuth glass, alumina was selected as the supporting additive in glass layers. With 2.5 vol% of alumina powder, glass green sheets were prepared and stacked alternately with alumina green sheet to form the ‘alumina/glass (including alumina additive)/alumina’ structure. The stacked green sheets were sintered into an insulating substrate. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the additive alumina formed supporting bridges in void layers. The depth and number of the stacking layers were varied to examine the insulating property. The lowest thermal conductivity obtained was 0.23 W/mK with a 500-㎛-thick substrate.