Studies on Piezoresistive Property of Thick Film Resistors

Abstract

Purpose-The paper aims to study the variation of piezo resistivity of the thick film resistors, namely, PVC-graphite /Nickel thick film resistor, with parameters such as volume fraction, grain size, resistor dimension and strain.

Design / methodology / approach – A model is proposed to explain the observed variations, which assumes that the texture of thick film resistor consists of insulator granules coated with conducting particles both graphite and Nickel particles and also having cavities. The resistivity of those resistors is controlled mainly by the contact resistance between the conducting particles and the number of contacts each particle with its neighbors.

Findings- The variation of resistivity with resistor dimension and strain is explained with the help of the model and it is attributed to the change in conducting particles and the number of contacts.

Originality / Value- The variation of resistivity with strain has also been explained with the help of this model and is attributed to the change in number of conducting particles and conducting layers.