Ceramic Materials

Ceramic based materials such as  fiber optics used in security systems, communications networks like phones and the internet, sensors, and imaging devices for tight places, including the human body; heat-resistant, protective tiles on the outside of the space shuttles; electronics; and snowboards and skis, and other sporting goods including golf clubs and tennis rackets.

A ceramic is a material which is neither metallic nor organic and it may be crystalline, glassy or both crystalline and glassy. Ceramics are typically hard and chemically non-reactive and can be formed or densified with heat.  Ceramics are the advance form of pottery and dishes: clay, bricks, tiles, glass, and cement are probably the best-known examples. Ceramic materials are used in electronics because, depending on their composition, they may be semiconducting, superconducting, ferroelectric, or an insulator.

Ceramic materials are special because of their properties. They typically possess high melting points, low electrical and thermal conductivity values, and high compressive strengths. Also they are generally hard and brittle with very good chemical and thermal stability.

In electronic and electrical industries advanced ceramic materials like Barium Titanate (BaTiO3), piezoelectric materials and semiconductor materials are heavily used for producing ceramic capacitors, vibratos, temperature sensors, oscillators, etc. Ceramics used for this type of applications are called functional ceramics. Specific properties of advanced ceramic materials are utilized for their industrial applications.

Magnetic ceramics are another type of advanced ceramic material that is used for the production of antennas and inductors. Bioceramics like Alumina with high density and purity is used to dental implants. Eye glasses, chemical ware, and the replacement of hips and knees, etc. are some of the applications of bioceramic materials.