The Microstructure of RuO2Thick Film Resistors and the Influence of Glass Particle Size on their Electrical Properties

The microstructure and electrical properties of RuO
2
thick film resistors have been studied with special emphasis on the effects of material parameters and processing variables such as size of glass frit particles, RuO
2
-glass mixing ratio, firing conditions, and so forth. A network of RuO
2
develops in a glass matrix on firing, and the increase in the glass particle size enlarged the cell in the network without any significant change in the microstructure. It is shown that a decrease in particle size of glass frit increases the resistance and causes the temperature coefficient of resistor (TCR) to take negative values.