Electrical and thermal behavior for DC and pulsed stress on chip resistors

Due to the continuous trend of miniaturization and high density interconnect PCBs, chip resistors are getting smaller and smaller. The resistive layer dimensions have been reduced and its small thickness is dependant by the technological manufacturing process, therefore transient electrical events like Electrostatic Discharge Pulses (ESD) can change the initial properties of the resistive layer, which leads to a modification of the resistance value or damaging the layer, causing chip resistor failure. This paper presents an analysis for the thermal and electrical behavior of thick and thin film chip resistors, by applying DC- current and rectangular pulses of short width and high voltage and current amplitudes. These high power and short duration pulses give in situ information about the adiabatic behavior of the analyzed layer.