Direct integration of cold sintered, temperature-stable Bi2Mo2O9-K2MoO4 ceramics on printed circuit boards for satellite navigation antennas

Bi2Mo2O9-K2MoO4 (BMO-KMO) composite ceramics with >95% theoretical density were densified by cold sintering at 150 °C. XRD, Raman, back-scattered SEM and EDX spectroscopy indicated that the BMO and KMO phases coexisted in all composites without inter-diffusion and secondary phases. Temperature coefficient of resonant frequency with near-zero value ∼ -1 ppm/°C was acheived for BMO-10%KMO with pemittivity ∼ 31 and quality factor ∼ 3,000 GHz. Cold-sintered composite ceramics were directly pressed/integrated onto a printed circuit board (PCB) using the Cu metallisation as a ground plane for the design and fabrication of a circularly polarized microstrip patch antenna suitable for satellite navigation systems which achieved efficiencies 87% at 1561 MHz (BeiDou) and 88% at 1575 MHz (GPS/Galileo). The low cost, low energy integration of temperature stable, cold sintered ceramics directly onto a PCB represents a step change in substrate fabrication technology for RF devices.