Booming Track: Red‑Hot Electronic Ceramics

Electronic ceramics are new‑type ceramic materials with unique electrical, optical and magnetic properties widely used in electronic information field. They are critical foundational components for optoelectronics and microelectronics industries and represent high‑tech new materials with fierce global competition. Electronic ceramic powder is the primary upstream raw material for manufacturing various electronic ceramic components.

The growth of global electronic ceramic material market is mainly driven by expanding downstream demands and technological iteration from consumer electronics, automotive electronics, AI data centers and new‑energy industries. According to Frost & Sullivan statistics: the global market size of core advanced electronic ceramic materials grew from 19.5 billion RMB in 2021 to 24.3 billion RMB in 2025 with a CAGR of 5.7%; it is projected to rise from 27.8 billion RMB to 43.1 billion RMB during 2026‑2030 at a CAGR up to 9.2%.

The electronic ceramic industry has two main development lines: first, passive component track represented by MLCC multilayer ceramic capacitors; second, structural ceramic track covering ceramic substrates, optical communication ceramic ferrules and semiconductor ceramic packaging bases.

01 MLCC amid Price Hype Cycle

MLCC, namely Multi‑Layer Ceramic Capacitor, performs filtering, decoupling and energy‑storage functions in circuits and is known as "the rice of electronic industry". It is massively adopted in nearly all electronic equipment ranging from mobile phones and home appliances to AI servers and new‑energy vehicles. The explosion of AI computing power triggers structural supply‑demand tension of MLCC and brings an industry‑wide price‑rising cycle.

Key upstream raw materials of MLCC are ceramic powder and electrode materials, and ceramic powder directly determines MLCC performance. Industry data shows ceramic powder accounts for 20%‑25% of material cost for low‑capacitance MLCC and 35%‑45% for high‑capacitance MLCC.

Barium Titanate (BaTiO₃) features high dielectric constant and low dielectric loss. It is the core base powder for MLCC and called "pillar of electronic ceramic industry". Barium titanate belongs to perovskite ferroelectric crystal. Mainstream fabrication methods include solid‑state reaction, chemical precipitation, hydrothermal synthesis and sol‑gel method. Among these approaches, hydrothermal method shows outstanding advantages: uniform composition, well‑defined particle morphology, adjustable particle size from tens of nanometers to several microns and good batch stability. It has become mainstream manufacturing route for high‑end MLCC.

At present, Japanese and US enterprises still dominate global high‑end MLCC ceramic powder market. Sakai Chemical from Japan and Ferro from USA hold market share of 28% and 20% respectively. With domestic technological breakthroughs and advancement of local substitution, Chinese material enterprises are developing rapidly. Companies like Sinocera Materials have realized domestic production of full‑range base powder and formulated powder.

02 Ceramic Substrates with Rising Market Demand

Continuous increase of chip power consumption puts higher requirements on packaging structural stability and heat dissipation. Ceramic substrates feature well‑matched coefficient of thermal expansion with semiconductor chips, which reduces interface stress and lowers packaging failure risk. It has become an important direction for advanced semiconductor packaging, and domestic ceramic substrate industry is in rapid growth phase.

Purity and particle size of upstream ceramic powder directly decide thermal conductivity and mechanical performance of substrates. Powder is mixed with additives, formed and sintered into dense green bodies. As insulators, ceramic substrates need metallization treatment to form conductive layers for component mounting and electrical connection. Common forming processes include dry pressing and tape casting; sintering technologies cover pressureless sintering, gas‑pressure sintering, hot isostatic pressing and spark plasma sintering.

Three mainstream ceramic substrate materials in China are Alumina (Al₂O₃), Aluminum Nitride (AlN) and Silicon Nitride (Si₃N₄):

• Alumina (Al₂O₃): α‑Al₂O₃ is the stable crystal phase with over 60‑year industrial history, mature process and favorable cost‑performance ratio. 99% alumina substrate delivers thermal conductivity of 25‑30 W/(m·K), suitable for low‑power and cost‑sensitive applications.

• Aluminum Nitride (AlN): Hexagonal covalent‑bond compound with excellent mechanical properties. Pure AlN crystal achieves room‑temperature thermal conductivity up to 320 W/(m·K), hot‑pressed substrate reaches 150 W/(m·K), more than 5 times of alumina. Its thermal expansion coefficient matches Si, SiC and GaAs semiconductor chips. It is highly promising material for high‑thermal‑conductivity packaging yet limited by tough manufacturing difficulty and high cost for mass‑volume production.

• Silicon Nitride (Si₃N₄): Strong covalent‑bond material featuring high strength, high hardness, high‑temperature resistance, wear‑resistance, low dielectric loss and good corrosion resistance. With comprehensive superior properties, it is widely applied in IGBT power module packaging.

Nowadays, demand for various ceramic substrates keeps growing in AI server heat‑dissipation boards, HBM advanced packaging, high‑speed optical modules, power semiconductors and laser device packaging scenarios.

03 Conclusion

The electronic ceramic industry is entering a golden development phase featured by high‑end upgrading and domestic substitution. Downstream demand resonance from AI computing power, new‑energy vehicles and high‑end manufacturing brings long‑term growth momentum for the whole sector. With continuous iteration of powder preparation, forming and sintering technologies, comprehensive performance of electronic ceramic materials will be further improved and provide underlying material guarantee for stable operation of various high‑end equipment.