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Thin Film Resistors Extend Frequency Coverage in

Small Form Factors
AVX Corp., Fountain Inn, S.C.
November 14, 2018

The electronics industry continues to push manufacturers to develop smaller passive components capable of
higher frequency performance. To meet these demands, traditional passive component designs are being
stretched to beyond their limits. AVX recently pushed the boundary of traditional high frequency resistors
with its new UBR series ultra-broadband thin film resistors. These ruggedly constructed, ultraminiature (EIA
0402, 1005 metric), ultra-broadband resistors are made with high performance tantalum nitride materials. The
substrate and cover use the company’s proprietary, automotive-qualified, glass-sandwich
FLEXITERM®surface-mount technology, instead of the typical alumina ceramic or aluminum nitride, which
reduces the traditional relative permittivity to just 4.4 F/m and helps extend the frequency range to 20 GHz.

The innovative design of the FLEXITERM termination provides an extra measure of protection against
flexure damage during installation, and the parts are also 100 percent laser trimmed, allowing tight
tolerances. Although this extension comes at the cost of overall power handling, the new UBR series ultra-
broadband resistors offers a 125 mW power rating. The power rating and the wider frequency range make
them ideal for use in optoelectronic, automotive, telecom, broadband and SATCOM systems, including
optoelectronic transceiver modules, transmit and receive optical subassemblies, wideband test equipment,
low noise amplifiers, mixers, broadband receivers, EW jammers, directional couplers and ultra-broadband
splitters and combiners.

The UBR series resistors are offered in the

following configurations:

Four standard temperature coefficient of

resistance values: ±25, ±50, ±100 and ±250
ppm/°C, with additional values available
when requested. The rated operating
temperature is from −40°C to +125°C.
Four standard resistance values: 25, 50, 100
and 200 Ω, with the range from 20 to 200 Ω
also available if requested.
Three standard tolerances: ±0.5, ±1 and ±2
percent, with additional values available. Figure 1 Exploded view of a UBR series resistor with
Two termination options: FLEXITERM AVX’s patented transmission line compensation.
Ag/epoxy, plated with NiSn, or gold-plated

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nickel (Ni/Au). They are RoHS compliant.

The 0402 resistors measure 1 mm long × 0.5 mm wide × 0.5 mm high with ±0.10 mm tolerance and have a
terminal width of 0.25 mm ±0.15 mm. They are packaged on tape-and-reel for automated assembly.

EXTENDING THE FREQUENCY RESPONSE

While this innovation in resistor design allows more passive components to be used at higher frequencies,
continued innovation is required to achieve greater performance in the ever-smaller packages demanded. One
way to extend the performance of a traditional resistor is to add transmission line compensation on the board.
This improves resistor performance by countering some of the parasitic of the resistor and the board it is
mounted on; however, this takes valuable board space.

Figure 2 Equivalent circuit of the UBR series resistor with the transmission
line compensation structure, mounted on a test board with a 50 Ω line.

To resolve this issue, AVX has created a UBR series resistor with a
patented, built-in compensation structure that emulates the effect of
compensating the transmission line without taking additional space
(see Figure 1). The equivalent circuit of the UBR series resistor
with the added transmission line compensation structure with a 50
Ω line on a test board is shown in Figure 2. This circuit is better
matched to the 50 Ω line than a standard broadband resistor, thanks
to the added capacitance across the resistor and the modified input
and output transmission line equivalents, which achieve better
matching to higher frequencies. Figure 3 shows a simulation using Figure 3 Comparison of the simulated
ANSYS HFSS 19.1 software, comparing the |S21| of the |S21| of compensated and
uncompensated and compensated UBR series resistors, both the uncompensated UBR series resistors
same value and mounted on a 50 Ω grounded coplanar on a 50 Ω grounded coplanar
transmission line on a Rogers 4350 test board. The response of the transmission line on a Rogers 4350
resistor with the optimized compensation structure through 40 GHz test board.
looks like an "ideal" resistor (assuming ±10 percent tolerance, i.e.,
where the resistor value is between 45 and 55 Ω), while the response of the non-optimized resistor only
extends to 15 GHz.

To extend the resistor’s frequency range, it is important to know

the specific board characteristics, as different boards require
different compensation structures to optimize high frequency
performance. To illustrate, when the Rogers 4350 test board in this
simulation is changed to an alumina board with a 50 Ω grounded
coplanar line, the compensation structure needs to be modified to
match the parasitics of the new transmission line and board. Figure
4 shows the |S21| responses on the alumina board, comparing the
standard UBR resistor with the resistor compensated for the
alumina board. The compensated response extends to almost 30 Figure 4 Comparison of the simulated
GHz, versus just 12.5 GHz for the uncompensated resistor.

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Each application is likely to require a unique board design and set |S21| of compensated and
of parameters. While some designs may require tighter tolerance on uncompensated UBR series resistors
the swing of |S21| versus frequency, others may require higher on a 50 Ω coplanar line on an alumina
frequency performance. Matching each individual requirement board.
only using modeling software will miss some parasitics a real
world board will add. To help ease the design load, AVX has several stepped values of typical compensation
structures available in a kit that design engineers can use to identify the designs that best extend the
frequency range of a given circuit while minimizing board space. The design kit helps assure that the correct
compensation is achieved, saving time chasing performance issues through multiple board spins. This is
especially beneficial where board space and vendor designs are set and qualified and need to match tight
design and performance requirements and strict regulations, such as military and medical applications.

The new compensated UBR series resistors are now being released, with additional improvements underway.
Future developments will shrink the component size from 0402 to 0201, increase the power rating toward 1
W and add new termination styles to meet a wider variety of customer needs.

AVX Corp.
Fountain Inn, S.C.
www.avx.com

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