The present invention relates to a method of producing W-Cu based composite powder,
which is used in heat-sink materials for high-power integrated circuits, electric
contact materials, etc, and to a method of producing a W-Cu based sintered alloy
by using the composite powder. The method of producing tungsten-copper based composite
powder includes first preparing composite oxide powder by dissolving ammonium metatungstate,
[(NH4)6(H2W12O40).4H2O],
as water-soluble tungsten salt, and copper nitrate or copper acetate in water to
the desirable composition, followed by spray-drying and calcining; then preparing
a tungsten oxide powder by separately calcining a tungsten-containing salt, such
as ammonium paratungstate, (NH4)10(H10W12O46);
forming ultra-fine tungsten-copper based composite oxide powder by mixing 2075
wt % of the composite oxide powder and 8025 wt % of the tungsten oxide powder
to the desirable composition, followed by ball-milling; and reducing the ultra-fine
tungsten-copper based composite oxide powder at temperature of 6501,050
C. If the composite powder is molded into a certain size and sintered thereafter
in temperature of 1,1101,450 C., a W-Cu based sintered alloy of superior
thermal and electric conductivities can be obtained thereby.