Patent ID: 8617433

Claim:
A conductive sintered oxide which comprises: a first crystal phase having a composition represented by RE1 4 Al 2 O 9 and a second crystal phase having a perovskite structure represented by (RE2 1-c SL c )(Al x M1 y )O 3 , in which RE1 is a first element group consisting of Yb and/or Lu and at least one element selected from Group IIIA elements excluding Yb, Lu and La, RE2 is a second element group consisting of at least one element selected from Group IIIA elements excluding La and including at least one of the elements constituting the first element group RE1, SL is an element group consisting of at least one of Sr, Ca and Mg and which includes Sr as a main element thereof in terms of molar proportion, and M1 is an element group consisting of at least one element selected from Groups IVA, VA, VIA, VIIA and VIII excluding Cr, the coefficient c of the second crystal phase is in the range of 0.18<c<0.50, and the coefficients x and y of the second crystal phase are in the range of 0.95â‰¦x+yâ‰¦1.1; wherein the conductive sintered oxide has a B constant of less than 2,000 K, within a temperature range of from âˆ’40Â° C. to +600Â° C.