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Aluminum Nitride (AlN)

Aluminum nitride is a non-oxide engineering ceramic.

The properties of aluminum nitride include five common variations. This page shows summary ranges across all of them. For more specific values, follow the links immediately below. The graph bars on the material properties cards further below compare aluminum nitride to other non-oxide engineering ceramics (top) and the entire database (bottom). A full bar means this is the highest value in the relevant set. A half-full bar means it's 50% of the highest, and so on.

Mechanical Properties

Compressive (Crushing) Strength

2100 MPa 300 x 103 psi

Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus

330 GPa 47 x 106 psi

Flexural Strength

190 to 400 MPa 28 to 58 x 103 psi

Fracture Toughness

2.9 MPa-m1/2 2.6 x 103 psi-in1/2

Knoop Hardness

1160

Poisson's Ratio

0.21 to 0.31

Electrical Properties

Dielectric Constant (Relative Permittivity) At 1 MHz

6.9 to 28

Dielectric Strength (Breakdown Potential)

15 to 56 kV/mm 0.59 to 2.2 V/mil

Electrical Dissipation At 1 Hz

0.0019

Electrical Dissipation At 1 MHz

0.00020 to 0.0010

Electrical Resistivity Order of Magnitude

10 to 12 10x Ω-m

Other Material Properties

Density

2.9 to 3.3 g/cm3 180 to 210 lb/ft3

Maximum Temperature: Mechanical

1380 °C 2520 °F

Maximum Thermal Shock

220 °C 440 °F

Specific Heat Capacity

780 J/kg-K 0.19 BTU/lb-°F

Thermal Conductivity

80 to 190 W/m-K 46 to 110 BTU/h-ft-°F

Thermal Expansion

4.2 to 5.4 µm/m-K

Common Calculations

Stiffness to Weight: Axial

55 to 63 points

Stiffness to Weight: Bending

69 to 80 points

Thermal Diffusivity

31 to 74 mm2/s

Followup Questions

Further Reading

Handbook of Refractory Carbides and Nitrides: Properties, Characteristics, Processing and Applications, Hugh O. Pierson, 1996

IEC 60672-3: Ceramic and glass-insulating materials - Part 3: Specifications for individual materials

Springer Handbook of Condensed Matter and Materials Data, W. Martienssen and H. Warlimont (editors), 2005

Sintering of Advanced Materials: Fundamentals and Processes, Zhigang Zak Fang (editor), 2010

CRC Materials Science and Engineering Handbook, 4th ed., James F. Shackelford et al. (editors), 2015