Study on the Excessive Current Noise in $RuO_2$ Thick Film Resistors

산화루테늄계 후막 저항기의 과도한 전류잡음에 관한 고찰

The cause of excess current noise which appears some times in RuO$_2$ thick film chip resistors and the process to reduce such noise are investigated. We observed that too large thermal expansion coefficients of resistor paste and electrode metal paste can induce the mechanical stress and microcracks in the contact region of the two sintered materials. Such microcracks result in the reduction of conduction paths in the sintered electrode and this provokes the increase of the resistance value and the current noise. Such excessive current noise induced by microcracks could be reduced or even eliminated by using an enlarged overcoat patterns in the plating process or by adding an additional annealing process before plating.