Theory of Dielectric Breakdown in Solids

Abstract

A short review is given of current trends in research on the theory of dielectric breakdown in solids; in particular the theory of thermal breakdown is discussed for the case in which the dielectric conductivity is explicitly field dependent. A new possibility for avalanche breakdown is also examined. The field in the dielectric is considered to be nonuniform because of the space charges created by collision ionization, and the enhanced field adjacent to the cathode causes field emission which is many orders of magnitude greater than would be expected from a mean field calculation.

Improving NASICON Sinterability through Crystallization under High-Frequency Electrical Fields

“…The sample did not densify measurably; however, no further investigation was undertaken since this did not further the current study. Thus, thermal runaway in flash sintering appears to behave similarly to thermal dielectric breakdown (O'Dwyer, 1964).…”

Electric Breakdown Model for Super-Thin Polyester Foil

“…The critical criterion of intrinsic breakdown is initial electrons formed by impact ionization. It consists of Hippel's low-energy criterion and Frohlich's high-energy criterion (Callen, 1949;Frohlich, 1939;Hippel & Alger, 1949;O'Dwyer, 1964;Seeger & Teller, 1939;Seitz, 1948;Whitehead, 1951).…”

“…1 (Naidu & Kamaraju, 1995;Pai & Zhang, 1995). The various mechanisms are intrinsic breakdown (Callen, 1949;Hippel & Alger, 1949;O'Dwyer, 1964;Seeger & Teller, 1939;Seitz, 1948;Whitehead, 1951), electromechanical breakdown (Laghari & Sarjeant, 1992;Stark & Garton, 1955), breakdown due to treeing and tracking, thermal breakdown, electrochemical breakdown (Sawa, 1986). …”

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“…Garton developed a model to analysis electric breakdown 9 . The main assumption is that on the equilibrium condition, the value of electrostatic compressive force equals to the mechanical compressive strength [9][10][11][12][13] . The electrostatic compressive force could be expressed as…”