The effect of sintering temperature on the microstructure, electrical and dielectric properties of (V, Mn, Co, Dy, Bi)- codoped zinc oxide ceramics was investigated in this study. An increase in the sintering temperature increased the average grain size from 4.7 to 10.4 μm and decreased the sintered density from 5.47 to 5.37 g/cm3. As the sintering temperature increased, the breakdown field decreased greatly from 6027 to 1659 V/cm. The ceramics sintered at 900 oC were characterized by the highest nonlinear coefficient (36.2) and the lowest low leakage current density (36.4 μA/cm2). When the sintering temperature increased, the donor concentration of the semiconducting grain increased from 2.49 × 1017 to 6.16 × 1017/cm3, and the density of interface state increased from 1.34 × 1012 to 1.99 × 1012/cm2. The dielectric constant increased greatly from 412.3 to 1234.8 with increasing sintering temperature.

1. Introduction
 2. Experimental procedure
 3. Results and Discussion
 4. Conclusions
 References

• Choon-Woo Nahm(Semiconductor Ceramics Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, Dongeui University, Busan 614-714, Korea) Corresponding author