Effective control of the heat generated from electronics and semiconductor devices requires a high thermal conductivity and a low thermal expansion coefficient appropriate for devices or modules. A method of reducing the thermal expansion coefficient of Cu has been suggested wherein a ceramic filler having a low thermal expansion coefficient is applied to Cu, which has high thermal conductivity. In this study, using pressureless sintering rather than costly pressure sintering, a polymer solution synthesis method was used to make nano-sized Cu powder for application to Cu matrix with an AlN filler. Due to the low sinterability, the sintered Cu prepared from commercial Cu powder included large pores inside the sintered bodies. A sintered Cu body with Zn, as a liquid phase sintering agent, was prepared by the polymer solution synthesis method for exclusion of pores, which affect thermal conductivity and thermal expansion. The pressureless sintered Cu bodies including Zn showed higher thermal conductivity (180 W/m·K) and lower thermal expansion coefficient (15.8×10−6/℃) than did the monolithic synthesized Cu sintered body.

2ZrO2·P2O5 powder, which is not synthesized by solid reaction method, was successfully synthesized through PVA solution method. In this process, the firing temperature and the PVA content strongly affected the crystallization behavior and final particle size. A stable α-phase 2ZrO2·P2O5 was synthesized at a firing temperature of 1200 oC and holding time of 4 h. β-phase 2ZrO2·P2O5 was observed, with un-reacted ZrO2 phases, for firing temperatures lower than 1200 oC. In terms of the PVA content effect, the powder prepared with a PVA mixing ratio of 12:1 showed stable α-phase 2ZrO2·P2O5; however, the β-phase was found to co-exist at relatively higher PVA content. The synthesized α-phase 2ZrO2·P2O5 powder showed an average particle size of 100~250 nm and an average thermal expansion coefficient of −2.5 × 10−6/oC in the range of room temp. ~800 oC.