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