MODERN THICK-FILM AND LTCC PASSIVES AND PASSIVE INTEGRATED COMPONENTS

The dimensions of modern passives and passive integrated components should be reduced significantly in the nearest future. The aim of this paper is to present current situation in the area of discrete, integrated and integral passives made using thick-film or Low Temperature Co-Fired Ceramic (LTCC) technologies. The role of these components in modern electronic circuits is discussed too. The concept of such passives is very simple and they are very cheap in mass production. But from materials science point of view they are complicated, non-equilibrium systems with physical and electrical properties dependent on microstructure, which is determined in turn by proper arrangement of raw materials properties and conditions of fabrication process. The material, technological and constructional solutions and their relation with electrical and stability properties are analyzed in details for thick-film and LTCC micropassives - microresistors, microcapacitors, microinductors and microvaristors - both described in the literature as well as fabricated and characterized at the Faculty of Microsystem Electronics and Photonics, Wroclaw University of Technology. Moreover the relations between minimal geometrical dimensions, technological accuracy and limitations on the one hand and electrical properties and stability behavior on the second hand are presented and discussed.