**1. Introduction**

84 Sintering of Ceramics – New Emerging Techniques

Wu, S.P., Zhao, Q.Y., Zheng, L.Q. and Ding, X. H. (2011). Behaviors of ZnO-doped Silver

Xiang J.-H., Yong, H. & Xie, Z.-P. (2002). Study of Gel-Tape-Casting Process of Ceramic

Yajima, K. & Yamaguchi, T. (1984). Sintering and Microstructure Development of Glass Bonded Silver Thick-Film. *Journals of Material Science*, Vol. 19, pp. 77-84. Zhou, D., Wang, H., Yao, X. & Phang, L.-X. (2008). Dielectric Behavior and Co-Firing with

Zhu, H., Liu, M., Zhou, H., Li, L. & Lv, A. (2007). Study on Properties of CaO-SiO2-B2O3 System Glass-Ceramic. *Materials Research Bulletin*, Vol. 42, Issue 6, pp. 1137-1144.

Materials. *Mat. Sc. & Eng. A,* Vol. 323, Issue 1-2, pp. 336-341.

548-552.

Thick-Film and Silver Grain Growth Mechanism*. Solid State Science,* Vol. 13, pp.

Silver Monoclinic BiSbO4 Ceramic. *J. Am. Ceram. Soc.*, Vol. 91, No. 4, pp. 1380-1383.

Microwave sintering is a new sintering technology developed in the middle to late period of the 1980's, which is characterized by fast densification for ceramic materials[1]. In recent years, microwave heating has been well employed in the field of sintering and joining of ceramics as a result of its advantages against conventional methods. These ceramic materials include oxides, mixed oxides, non-oxides, composite ceramics, etc[2]. In addition, because ceramics have low thermal conductivities and are processed at high temperatures, many researchers have attempted to take advantage of volumetric heating for sintering, chemical vapor infiltration (CVI), and pyrolysis of polymeric precursors[3]. Now it has been found that the microwave sintering can also be applied as efficiently and effectively to thermistor ceramics as well as many other ceramics. This chapter compares advantages of microwave sintering with conventional sintering and presents some applications in thermistor ceramics.
