Developments of Cr-Si and Ni-Cr Single-Layer Thin-Film Resistors and a Bi-Layer Thin-Film Resistor with Adjustable Temperature Coefficient of Resistor

Abstract

At first, Cr-Si (28 wt% Cr, 72 wt% Si) and Ni-Cr (80 wt% Ni, 20 wt% Cr) thin-film materials were deposited by using sputtering method at the same parameters, and their physical and electrical properties were investigated. The resistances of Cr-Si and Ni-Cr thin-film resistors decreased with the increase of deposition time (thickness) and their resistivity had no apparent variations as the deposition time increased. The temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of single-layer Cr-Si thin-film resistors was negative and the TCR value of single-layer Ni-Cr thin-film resistors was positive. For that, we used Cr-Si thin films as upper (or lower) layer and Ni-Cr thin films as lower (upper) layer to investigate a bi-layer thin-film structure. The deposition time of Ni-Cr thin films was fixed at 10 min and the deposition time of Cr-Si thin films was changed from 10 min to 60 min. We had found that as Cr-Si thin films were used as upper or lower layers they had similar deposition rates. We had also found that the thickness and stack method of Cr-Si thin films had large effects on the resistance and TCR values of the bi-layer thin-film resistors.

Characterization of Cr/Ag Bi-Layer thin Metal Contacts Sputter Deposited on N-Type Si Semiconductor

“…Their behavior tends to be stable which is reported by Novelo et al [7]. For Ni/Cr bi-layer thin film, Cheng et al [8] reported that the resistance of the thin films is non-linearly decreased with the increased of the deposition rate and had no apparent variations during the deposition time increment. In electronics industry, multilayer thin film is used as metallic contacts or as a relays in micro-electrochemical systems (MEMS).…”

The effect of microstructures on the electrical properties of Cr–Si–C thin film resistors

“…Many reports have been written on the Cr-Si binary system. [16][17][18][19][20][21][22] However, resistivity and TCR are not sufficiently stable in a binary system, since the film microstructure is changed from Cr-Si amorphous to CrSi 2 crystal by postannealing at a low temperature of below 300 °C. 17,18) Thus, the thermally-induced fluctuation of the electrical properties during the post wafer process is a concern.…”