Thermodynamic assessment and experimental check of fluoride sintering aids for AlN

This paper describes a theoretical and experimental access to new sintering aids for the densification of aluminium nitride and the prediction of its behaviour during sintering, using thermodynamic assessments. Based on thermodynamic calculations using Thermo-Calc software and the attached database SGTE, sintering aids like Ca, Y and some rare earth containing compounds were assessed and secondary phases were determined. Predictions were confirmed by experiments.