What Causes Thick Film Resistor Failures?

Thick film resistor collapse is seldom brought on by a collapse of the resistive component but is normally because of outside environmental factors such as electrical and mechanical stresses and managing problems.

Failures could be called a degradation of functionality or total failure (generally as an open as opposed to a brief circuit).

MECHANICAL FAILURES

Aside from managing damage resulting in substrate chips and cracks nearly all mechanical damage results from either vibration or improper mounting of the gadget. Micro breaking of the resistor substance brought on by compression or vibration expansion of this resistor because of improper mounting may lead to change in the immunity, harm to the resistive component or element failure. In most scenarios, the danger of failure is raised by the existence of at least one of those stresses given below.

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

Even though a thick film resistor can be coated to protect it from moisture and competitive chemical components environmental elements like pollution and moisture still need careful attention.

THERMAL FACTORS

It’s thus important to comprehend the heat dissipation qualities of this resistor and substrate material. A minimal energy resistor dissipates heat through conduction via its part leads or links, though a high power resistor dissipates heat.

OVERLOAD CONDITIONS

A constant over-load of a resistor device interrupts the insulation resistance and affects that the resistor parameters as time passes. Voltage pressure can lead to conduction from usually non-conductive substances in the resistor movie resulting in corrosion and sometimes failure as a result of hot spots. It’s thus important to discover the resistor maximum voltage.

SURGE CONDITIONS

A bigger surface area causes a greater picture mass, and finally a better surge functionality.

The last factor contributing factor into some resistor surge capacity is the way the part will be resistor trimmed to set the last resistance value. The procedure utilized for trimming may cause weak spots that result in breakdown under surge conditions.

ESD

Damage through ESD is a latent defect which could be tricky to find. The resistor might be partially degraded by ESD however continue to execute its intended purpose. On the other hand, the odds of catastrophic failure of this resistor apparatus are raised, especially in the event the unit is subjected to a number of those pressures listed previously.

CONCLUSION

A resistor might be the cheapest price component in a method but failure could be just as devastating as failure of another system component. It’s thus important to understand possible failure modes and how they could be addressed. A partnership with a professional maker with long term expertise of thick film resistor technologies and its fabrication may minimise the risks of collapse.