Aging degradation of Ni and NiCr-Ni thin film conductor systems

Abstract

In this paper an experimental procedure for the evaluation of the Ni and NiCr-Ni new low cost conductor systems is described. The possibility of an application of these conductor systems as a contact material for thin film resistors has been examined. A special test pattern with intermittent pattern resistors and meander patterns of conductor and resistive material was applied. The quality of thin film resistor contacts is defined by the constancy of their electrical and physical properties during exploitation. Following the R.T. Galla distributed parameter analysis model the calculation of the aging degradation of the Ni and NiCr-Ni conductor systems has been carried out.Considering the degradation values it seems that the Ni one-component conductor system is superior to the NiCr-Ni two-component system. From this investigation we can conclude that the quality of studied conductor systems is satisfactory in applications where corrosion resistance is not critical.