ABSTRACT

Thin-film materials are deposited or sputtered on a ceramic or insulating substrate. The films can be conductive, resistive, or insulating and are generally less than 1 μm thick, compared with the 10 to 50 μm of thick-film materials. Thus thin-film technology can be used to produce resistors, capacitors, and conductors on a substrate. It is also possible to produce thin-film active devices, although little commercial success has been achieved in this area. The advantages of thin-film technology are that better resolution and higher densities can be achieved. The high resolution of thin film has led to extensive use of this technology in microwave integrated circuitry, where high resolution and low losses are required on transmission lines and other microwave elements. Another major area of application is in precision resistor networks for A/D and D/A converters.