Resistors 

Resistors are easy to locate on the inside layers of a multilayer board. This saves valuable space for populating the inner layers. 

Another major advantage of printed resistors is their high stability against thermal drift. This has been proven in a temperature cycle test (-40 °C / + 125 °C) with up to 3000 cycles. Conventional solder joints fail far earlier under these conditions. As printed resistors have no solder joints, there are also no solder faults here.

Standard resistors for pull up/down applications can be manufactured with a tolerance of ± 30 % without laser trimming. For higher quality applications, the tolerance can be reduced by laser trimming the resistors to ± 5 % throughout the entire service life and also under extreme climatic conditions (40°C / 92% rel. humidity / 1000h). 

New developments include pulse resistors and heating resistors: 

• Printed pulse resistors can absorb high powers (kW) over short periods (ms) and replace more expensive ceramic resistors.  
• Polymer thick film systems with a non-linear positive temperature coefficient can be used as means of a self controlling heating. So almost constant temperatures up to 60 °C can be generated.