Patent ID: 7169331

Claim:
A conductive paste adapted to be sintered with a ceramic body at the same time, the conductive paste comprising a conductive component and an organic vehicle, wherein the conductive component comprises a copper powder coated with a first metal oxide having a melting point exceeding the melting point of copper wherein the first metal oxide comprises at least one metal oxide selected from the group consisting of Al 2 O 3 , ZrO 2 , TiO 2 , SiO 2 , Nb 2 O 5 and Ta 2 O 5 and a powder of a second metal oxide having a melting point exceeding the melting point of the copper; the content of the first metal oxide is in the range of about 0.05% by weight to about 5% by weight of the total weight of the coated copper powder and the metal oxide powder; and the total content of the first metal oxide and the powder of the second metal oxide is in the range of about 1% by weight to about 12% by weight of the total weight of the coated copper powder and the metal oxide powder.