Thick Film Hybrids

Thick film technology has been used for decades in applications requiring high performance. Ceramic substrate is a good heat conductor and a very good insulator at the same time. It is inert and mechanically very stable even in extreme environments. Conductors, resistors, dielectrics and other functional or protective structures are screen printed additively on the surface of the substrate or, in multilayer structures, on dielectric layers. The sequencial prints achieve their final state in firing at high temperature, ranging from 400 ºC to 900 ºC.

Resistors can be either printed on the substrate, or assembled as discrete surface mount devices. Laser trimming of the printed resistors offer an easy way to improve the performance by allowing any target value to be used instead of certain preset values. Resistors can be trimmed in relation to the other components, and trimming is not limited to resistors only. Other passive components, like inductors, thermistors and capacitors, can be made similarly by integrating those on the substrate.