Abstract
Studies of noise properties of thick-film conducting lines from Au or PdAg
conductive pastes on LTCC or alumina substrates are reported. Experiments
have been carried out at the room temperature on samples prepared in the
form of meanders by traditional screen-printing or laser-shaping
technique. Due to a low resistance of the devices under test (DUTs),
low-frequency noise spectra have been measured for the dc-biased samples
arranged in a bridge configuration, transformer-coupled to a low-noise
amplifier. The detailed analysis of noise sources in the signal path and
its transfer function, including the transformer, has been carried out,
and a procedure for measurement setup self-calibration has been described.
The 1/f noise component originating from resistance fluctuations has been
found to be dominant in all DUTs. The analysis of experimental data leads
to the conclusion that noise is produced in the bends of meanders rather
than in their straight segments. It occurs that noise of Au-based
laser-shaped lines is significantly smaller than screen-printed ones. PdAg
lines have been found more resistive but simultaneously less noisy than
Au-based lines.
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