In the case of functional ceramics, it is not only the performance of the materials themselves that is important but above all the processability of the materials plays a very important role for industrial applications. One possibility for the production of ceramic layers is electrophoretic deposition (EPD). In this work, Niobate (KNN) - polymer (PMMA) composite layers were deposited simultaneously with a PMMA content of up to almost 35 vol%. Those ceramics can act as dielectric components or maybe as a highly sensitive sensor layer for humidity sensors. The BaTiO3 samples are designed for piezoelectric applications where a layer thickness of 50-150 µm is requested.

Titanate samples were deposited on a fine-grained and sanded graphite electrode and afterward sintered at various temperatures in a chamber furnace. The sintering program included the steps of debinding the polymer binder, burning the graphite, and sintering the 200 nm-sized ceramic particles in only one run. For the intended piezo-electric application a layer thickness of about 100 µm was achieved with only minimal bend layers and a roughness minor than 5 µm without any supporting material.

 The KNN samples with an area of 1x1 cm² and a thickness of 25-200 µm were deposited on a nickel-plated steel sheet and vapor-deposited with a silver electrode for the capacitance measurement. For industrial applications, a high polymer content can be beneficial when it is possible to get mechanical stable layers at room temperature which don’t need a high-temperature treatment. Figure 2 shows the posibility of adjusting the polymer content in the composite material in a wide range. By combining the two shown effects a really high PMMA content can be acieved.