The glass ceramic material of the present disclosure contains a glass that contains SiO.sub.2, B.sub.2O.sub.3, Al.sub.2O.sub.3, and M.sub.2O, where M is an alkali metal, and a filler that contains quartz, Al.sub.2O.sub.3, and ZrO.sub.2. The glass ceramic material contains the glass in an amount of 57.4% by weight or more and 67.4% by weight or less, the quartz in the filler in an amount of 29% by weight or more and 39% by weight or less, the Al.sub.2O.sub.3 in the filler in an amount of 1.8% by weight or more and 5% by weight or less, and the ZrO.sub.2 in the filler in an amount of 0.3% by weight or more and 1.8% by weight or less.

A method of fabricating a glass matrix composite includes providing a fiber preform in a cavity of a die tooling, the fiber preform circumscribing an interior region; providing a parison of glass matrix material in the interior region, the glass matrix material having a first viscosity; introducing pressurized inert gas into the parison to outwardly inflate the parison against the fiber preform; and while under pressure from the pressurized inert gas, decreasing the first viscosity of the glass matrix material to a second viscosity. The pressure and the second viscosity cause the glass matrix material to flow and infiltrate into the fiber preform to thereby form a consolidated workpiece. The consolidated workpiece is then cooled to form a glass matrix composite.

ZrO.sub.2-toughened glass ceramics having high molar fractions of tetragonal ZrO.sub.2 and fracture toughness value of greater than 1.8 MPa.Math.m.sup.1/2. The glass ceramic may also include also contain other secondary phases, including lithium silicates, that may be beneficial for toughening or for strengthening through an ion exchange process. Additional second phases may also decrease the coefficient of thermal expansion of the glass ceramic. A method of making such glass ceramics is also provided.

ZrO.sub.2-toughened glass ceramics having high molar fractions of tetragonal ZrO.sub.2 and fracture toughness value of greater than 1.8 MPa.Math.m.sup.1/2. The glass ceramic may also include also contain other secondary phases, including lithium silicates, that may be beneficial for toughening or for strengthening through an ion exchange process. Additional second phases may also decrease the coefficient of thermal expansion of the glass ceramic. A method of making such glass ceramics is also provided.

The lead-free glass composition contains vanadium oxide, tellurium oxide, alkali metal oxide, iron oxide, barium oxide, and tungsten oxide while containing substantially no phosphorus oxide, and further contains at least one of additional components including yttrium oxide, lanthanum oxide, cerium oxide, erbium oxide, ytterbium oxide, aluminum oxide, and gallium oxide. A content of the tellurium oxide is equal to or more than 25 mol %, and equal to or less than 43 mol % in terms of oxide TeO.sub.2. A content of the alkali metal oxide is equal to or more than 4 mol %, and equal to or less than 27 mol % in terms of oxide R.sub.2O (R: alkali metal element).

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a lead-free glass composition in which crystallization is suppressed and which has a low softening point. This lead-free glass composition is characterized by containing silver oxide, tellurium oxide and vanadium oxide, and further containing at least one compound selected from among yttrium oxide, lanthanum oxide, cerium oxide, erbium oxide, ytterbium oxide, aluminum oxide, gallium oxide, indium oxide, iron oxide, tungsten oxide and molybdenum oxide as an additional component, and in that the content values (mol %) of silver oxide, tellurium oxide and vanadium oxide satisfy the relationships Ag.sub.2O>TeO.sub.2V.sub.2O.sub.5 and Ag.sub.5O2V.sub.2O.sub.5 when calculated in terms of the oxides, and in that the content of TeO.sub.2 is 25-37 mol. %.

A composite ceramic powder of the present invention includes: a LAS-based ceramic powder having precipitated therein -eucryptite or a -quartz solid solution as a main crystal; and TiO.sub.2 powder and/or ZrO.sub.2 powder.

An inductor component includes an element assembly formed of an insulator material and an inner electrode arranged in the element assembly. The insulator material contains a base material formed of an amorphous material containing B, Si, O, and K and a crystalline filler and includes a filler-poor glass portion in a region along the inner electrode. The content of the crystalline filler in the filler-poor glass portion is lower than the content of the crystalline filler in the element assembly excluding the filler-poor glass portion.

A glass ceramic sintered body having a small dielectric loss in a high frequency band of 10 GHz or higher and stable characteristics against temperature variation and a wiring substrate using the same are provided. The glass ceramic sintered body contains crystallized glass, an alumina filler, silica, and strontium titanate. The content of the crystallized glass is 50 mass % to 80 mass %, the content of the alumina filler is 15.6 mass % to 31.2 mass % in terms of Al.sub.2O.sub.3, the content of silica is 0.4 mass % to 4.8 mass % in terms of SiO.sub.2, and the content of the strontium titanate is 4 mass % to 14 mass % in terms of SrTiO.sub.3.

Doped, low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) insulating substrates and related wiring boards and methods of manufacture are disclosed. The doped, LTCC insulating substrate is formed from a baked (e.g., sintered) glass-ceramic aggregate material formed from a glass material, a ceramic filler material, and a composite oxide. The crystallized glass-ceramic aggregate is then doped with Iron and/or Manganese before baking. Iron or Manganese can further reduce dielectric loss and the loss tangent of the LTCC insulating substrate formed from that glass material. The glass material becomes crystallized due to an oxide crystal phase being deposited on the glass material during baking, which reduces the dielectric losses. This may be important for the application use as wiring boards for high radio-frequency (RF) electrical circuits where low dielectric loss and loss tangent is desired to achieve a desired signal transmission delay performance.