Electronic Component News   Resistors Answer Design Challenges
for Harsh Environments Mon, 11/14/2011 - 6:18am Kory Schroeder,
Stackpole Electronics Inc., www.seielect.com  Many resistor
applications have operating conditions that don’t require
anything beyond a standard thick film chip resistor or general-
purpose carbon film leaded resistor. However, when the
application environment requires something more robust, choosing
the correct resistor technology is an important factor to keep
design costs down and time-to-market short. It is important for
design engineers to understand the various resistor technologies
and how they perform with respect to harsh environmental
conditions. Two of the most important environmental
considerations for resistors are high moisture and exposure to
high amount of sulfur. Many engineers are surprised to learn
that commodity thick film chips, the most commonly specified
resistor today, perform well in high moisture environments, but
have some long-term reliability concerns in hi