The invention relates to a strontium aluminate mixed oxide precursor and a method for producing same, as well as to a strontium aluminate mixed oxide and method for producing same. The strontium aluminate mixed oxide precursor can be transformed into a strontium aluminate mixed oxide at relatively low temperature. The strontium aluminate mixed oxide is characterized by substantially spherically-shaped particles with a spongy- or porous bone-like microstructure. A luminescent material including a strontium aluminate mixed oxide is also provided.

The present invention relates to an oxide sintered material that can be used suitably as a sputtering target for forming an oxide semiconductor film using a sputtering method, a method of producing the oxide sintered material, a sputtering target including the oxide sintered material, and a method of producing a semiconductor device 10 including an oxide semiconductor film 14 formed using the oxide sintered material.

A method for molding a ceramic material includes: mixing a ceramic powder, a resin, a curing agent and a solvent to obtain a raw material slurry for a ceramic material; injecting the raw material slurry into an elastic container; curing the resin in the raw material slurry injected into the elastic container to form a molded body having a desired shape; and demolding the molded body from the elastic container.

The present invention relates to an oxide sintered material that can be used suitably as a sputtering target for forming an oxide semiconductor film using a sputtering method, a method of producing the oxide sintered material, a sputtering target including the oxide sintered material, and a method of producing a semiconductor device 10 including an oxide semiconductor film 14 formed using the oxide sintered material.

A ceramic contains, in mass percent: Si.sub.3N.sub.4: 20.0 to 60.0%, ZrO.sub.2: 25.0 to 70.0%, and one or more oxides selected from MgO, Y.sub.2O.sub.3, CeO.sub.2, CaO, HfO.sub.2, TiO.sub.2, Al.sub.2O.sub.3, SiO.sub.2, MoO.sub.3, CrO, CoO, ZnO, Ga.sub.2O.sub.3, Ta.sub.2O.sub.5, NiO, and V.sub.2O.sub.5: 5.0 to 15.0%. The ceramic has a coefficient of thermal expansion as high as that of silicon and an excellent mechanical strength, allows fine machining with high precision, and prevents particles from being produced.

A silicon nitride sintered body includes a silicon nitride crystal grains and grain boundary phases. Further, when D stands for width of the silicon nitride sintered body before being subjected to surface processing, relations between an average grain diameter dA and an average aspect ratio rA of the silicon nitride crystal grain in a first region from an outermost surface to a depth of 0 to 0.01D and an average grain diameter dB and an average aspect ratio rB of the silicon nitride crystal grain in a second region inside the first region satisfy the inequalities:

0.8≤ dA/dB≤ 1.2; and

0.8≤ rA/rB≤ 1.2.

The present disclosure relates to the manufacture of silicon nitride implants with increased surface roughness and porosity.

A silicon nitride sintered body includes at least one black portion with a major axis of 10 μm or more in a field of view with a unit area of 5 mm×5 mm, when observing an arbitrary cross-section of the silicon nitride sintered body using a metallurgical microscope. A major axis of the black portion is Preferably 500 μm or less. The number of the black portion within the field of view with a unit area of 5 mm×5 mm is preferably 2 or more and 10 or less. A segregation portion of Fe is preferably included in the black portion.

A cubic boron nitride particle population having highly-etched surfaces and a high toughness index is produced by blending a reactive metal powder with a plurality of cubic boron nitride particles to form a blended mixture. The blended mixture is compressed to form a compressed mixture. The compressed mixture is subjected to a temperature and a pressure, where the temperature is controlled to cause etching of the plurality of cubic boron nitride particles by reaction of cubic boron nitride with the reactive metal powder, thereby forming a plurality of etched cubic boron nitride particles. Also, the temperature and pressure are controlled to cause boron nitride to remain in a cubic boron nitride phase. Afterwards, the plurality of etched cubic boron nitride particles is recovered from the compressed mixture to form the particle population. Preferably, the particle population contains no hexagonal boron nitride.

The invention relates to a method for producing a ceramic moulded body, comprising the following steps: a) producing a green body containing ceramic material, binding agents and an organic pore forming agent; b) heating the green body to a temperature equal to or higher than the sublimation temperature of the pore forming agent; c) burning the green body to form a ceramic moulded body. According to the invention that the organic pore forming agent is selected from the group consisting of dicarboxylic acids and mixtures of dicarboxylic acids, the sublimation temperature being at least 80 k lower than the decomposition temperature.