Effect of composition on the electrical properties of electroformed screen-printed thick film sandwich devices

The electrical properties of fired thick film piezoresistive gauges based on composites of bismuth, indium, cerium and ruthenium oxides are presented. Various material characteristics are analysed, including DC and AC characteristics. The conduction mechanism before and after electroforming is also examined. Structural studies of the fired resistor layers, before and after high field application, are carried out, where evidence of filament growth within the thick film cermet materials is observed. The DC biasing of the MRM device into the negative resistance region shows the ability to produce spontaneous damped oscillations at frequencies up to 3 MHz using a suitable RCL network.