Electrical properties of thick-film sandwich devices before and after electroforming

The electrical properties of a thick-film sandwich device based on a metal-resistor-metal (MRM) structure are presented. A ruthenium-based resistor is sandwiched between two silver-palladium (Ag-Pd) electrodes. The conduction mechanism before and after electroforming is examined. The device exhibits Poole-Frenkel bulk limited conduction at high fields in the temperature range 290 to 393 K. The activation energy at high field and high temperature is estimated to be 4 meV, leading to the conclusion that hopping conduction takes place at high applied fields. The formed devices exhibit voltage-controlled differential negative resistance and an increase in the conductivity under atmospheric pressure conditions. The characteristics are similar to those observed in thin-film metal-insulator-metal (MIM) devices. However, the behaviour is not as pronounced, and this may be attributed to the increased resistor layer thickness. Les proprietes electriques des echantiillons couche epaisses en forme metal-resistance-metal (MRM) sont presentees. Un resistor d'un materiel base l'oxyde de ruthenium et avec les electrodes d'un alliage Ag-Pd est etudie. Le mecanisme de conduction avant et pres la formation electrique est examine et montre une conductibilite aux hauts champs qui suit la loi de Poole et Frenkel. Les mesures sont faites entre 290 et 393 K. L'energie d'excitation electronique aux champs eleves et aux hautes temperatures a une valeur 4 meV en accord avec le concept de ‘hopping’ aux ces champs eleves. Apres la formation on observe une resistance negative differentielle et une augmentation de la conductibilite sous pression atmospherique. Les effets sont comme observes avec les structures couches minces des isolateurs (MIM) quand I signifie l'isolateur, mais ne sont pas si grands que l'on observe avec un echantillon MIM.