Ultra-low percolation threshold in ferrite-metal cofired ceramics brings both high permeability and high permittivity

High permeability and high permittivity are hard to be achieved simultaneously, either in single-phased materials or in composite materials, such as ferrite-ferroelectric ceramic composites and ferrite-metal percolative composites. In this work, ultra-low percolation threshold is achieved in NiZnCu ferrite-Ag cofired ceramics, which endows the composite with both high permeability and high permittivity by minimizing the negative effect of nonmagnetic conductive fillers on magnetic properties. The percolation threshold is controlled by the temperature matching between ferrite densification and Ag melting. A thin and long percolative net forms between large ferrite grains under a proper cofiring process, which brings a low percolation threshold of 1.21vol%, more than one order of magnitude lower than the theoretical value of 16vol%. Near the ultra-low threshold, the composite exhibits a high permeability of 585 and a high permittivity of 78.