Abstract
Work has been carried out to develop a new ruthenium oxide based thick film resistor whose resistance is independent of the contact area of the conductor to the resistor. Such a resistor can then be combined with a low cost silver conductor.It has been found that such a resistor can be made by doping a ruthenium oxide based thick film resistor with up to several percent of gold. With such a material it is possible to use silver or palladium silver (containing only very small amounts of palladium) as an electrode material and very few interactions have been found to occur between the resistor and electrode. Such a gold doped ruthenium oxide thick film resistor using silver electrodes has some major advantages as follows:-1. The resistor size can be made much smaller than normal.2. The design of a thick film hybrid circuit becomes easier.3. The resistor cost can be reduced.