A characterisation of thick film resistors for strain gauge applications

Some commercial thick film resistors with sheet resistivities from 1 kohm/s q. up to 1 Mohm/sq. were evaluated for strain gauge applications. Temperatu re coefficients of resistivity, noise indices and gauge factors (GFs) were measured. For the same resistor series GFs and noise indices increase with increasing sheet resistivity. However, both GFs and noise indices are diffe rent for resistors with the same nominal sheet resistivity but from differe nt resistor series. The results indicated that the microstructure rather th an the different chemical composition of the conductive phase in thick film resistors is the primary reason for the different gauge factors. (C) 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers.