This award will support a long-term visit by Professor Burtrand I. Lee, Department of Ceramic Engineering, Clemson University, to Japan for a twelve month cooperative research project with Dr. Ken Takahashi, Department of Ceramics, Hitachi Research Laboratory in Hitachi City, Japan. The researchers plan to undertake a study of low dielectric constant cordierite electronic substrates via porosity controlled sol-gel process. Porosity controlled cordiertie substrates will be produced by direct casting of hydrolyzed metal-organic precursors of MgO, Al2 O-3, and SiO -2 followed by gelation, drying, and heat treatments. The aging and drying procedures will be developed to hasten the process. The substrates will be characterized for microstructure, phases, porosity, film thickness, dielectric constants, and sintering behavior as a function of porosity. The research results have the potential of contributing significantly to the fundamental understanding of sol-gel processing and may produce materials suitable for engineering end-use evaluations in electronic circuits. It may also lead to the expansion of ceramic materials in electronic packaging applications. The Hitachi Research Laboratory is a highly recognized and prestigeous facility with state of the art equipment. It is a world leader in many aspects of ceramic electronic packaging. This collaboration, therefore, should contribute to furthering ceramic electronic technology in the United States. It is anticipated that the collaboration between the researchers will continue beyond the termination of this formal agreement.
