ABSTRACT
The growth of the microelectronics industry during the 1970s resulted in the use of thick lm pastes based on gold being rmly established in commercial use for various electronic devices and sensors [1-4]. There are many types of thick lm conductor pastes which are usually composed of a metal powder, a metal oxide including a glass frit, and an organic binder. The metal powder can be silver, gold, platinum, palladium, etc., used either individually or in combination, depending on the properties and functions required. In developing new devices, a critical issue for manufacturers is product reliability, and therefore gold, which is chemically inert, is often selected as the metal powder despite the relatively high price. In this chapter the principles of thick lm technology and the use of gold paste in this application is described.
