Method of manufacturing a multilayer ceramic body

Abstract

A method of manufacturing a multilayer ceramic using Cu as the conductor material is disclosed. This method comprises a step of forming a multilayer laminate by the green tape multilayer laminating method or by the thick film printing method on ceramic substrate with an insulating material with a mixture of ceramic and glass containing lead oxide as its main component and a conductor paste with CuO as its main component; a step of heat-treatment for decomposing and removing organic binder in air (binder removing process); a step of causing reduction at temperatures where copper oxide is reduced, but lead oxide is not, in a mixed gas atmosphere of nitrogen and hydrogen (reduction process); and a step of firing in a nitrogen atmosphere, thereby effecting sintering of the insulating material composed of ceramic and glass containing lead oxide and metallization of copper electrodes (firing process). For the uppermost layer electrodes, metal copper paste is employed, and a pattern printing process is conducted subsequent to the aforementioned reduction process, so that the sintering of the insulating material and the metallization of the uppermost layer are simultaneously performed; in this way, highly reliable uppermost layer Cu electrodes are obtainable.