Thin film resistors are becoming the mainstay for hybrid microcircuits.

Integral part of the metal interconnect system.

Offer greater design latitude to the circuit designer; can be laser trimmed with high precision and stability in hermetic packages.
Package size and weight can be significantly reduced using hybrid technology as compared to discrete resistor use on PC boards.
For RF circuit applications, thin film resistors offer a reduction in electrical circuit parasitics by reducing unwanted inductance and capacitance.

This reduction in weight and increased performance are necessary for meeting today’s Space Systems Requirements.

Simple thin film resistor networks have been fabricated with Titanium Carbide as a new material.

This material has a very high melting point (3500 K), a high resistance to chemical attack and most importantly low sheet resistivity (100 ?/sq).

In this work, Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) was combined with Si- wafer processing techniques.

Room temperature/low pressure deposition technique can be used on
temperature sensitive semiconductor substrates.

We previously developed a MEMS process integrating TiC into Si wafer fabrication processes.

TCR of TiC was calculated and is comparable to TaN.