An easy approach to manufacture high quality zirconia-toughed alumina

Zirconia-toughened alumina (ZTA) is used to release the heat generated in electronic components, since it shows the high thermal conductivity of 23–27 W/mK and the excellent flexural strength of 550–700 MPa. However, it has not been reported how the high quality ZTA can be manufactured, in the literature. In this manuscript, an interesting approach is described to manufacture a high quality ZTA. The high quality ZTA can be manufactured by contaminating the surface of alumina particles with YSZ using a ball-milling process. It shows the microstructure of a nanocomposite composed of Nb-doped YSZ and alumina. Consequently, the high quality ZTA has the high thermal conductivity of 27.5 W/mK and the excellent flexural strength of 732 MPa similar to those of a commercial ZTA.