Electrical resistance, metals

Fig. 9.19. Schematic of a typical drift test . A low-resistance metal stripe is patterned, over a length L, on top of a higher-resistance stripe through which an electric current is applied. As the current shunts through the lower-electrical-resistance metal, current-induced atomic drift leads to the formation of a depleted zone in the wake of electron transport at one end of the stripe and hillocks and extrusions at the other end.

Figure C2.16.1. A nomogram comparing electrical resistivity of pure (intrinsic) and doped Si witli metals and insulators.

It is a white crystalline, brittle metal with a pinkish tinge. It occurs native. Bismuth is the most diamagnetic of all metals, and the thermal conductivity is lower than any metal, except mercury. It has a high electrical resistance, and has the highest Hall effect of any metal (i.e., greatest increase in electrical resistance when placed in a magnetic field). 

Some nonhygroscopic materials such as metals, glass, and plastics, have the abiUty to capture water molecules within microscopic surface crevices, thus forming an invisible, noncontinuous surface film. The density of the film increases as the relative humidity increases. Thus, relative humidity must be held below the critical point at which metals may etch or at which the electrical resistance of insulating materials is significantly decreased. 

Electrical. Glasses are used in the electrical and electronic industries as insulators, lamp envelopes, cathode ray tubes, and encapsulators and protectors for microcircuit components, etc. Besides their abiUty to seal to metals and other glasses and to hold a vacuum and resist chemical attack, their electrical properties can be tailored to meet a wide range of needs. Generally, a glass has a high electrical resistivity, a high resistance to dielectric breakdown, and a low power factor and dielectric loss. 

Ceramics and Metals. Among ceramics, the most commonly used material is alumina, which has good electrical resistivity (- 10 H-cm). 

For many electronic and electrical appHcations, electrically conductive resias are required. Most polymeric resias exhibit high levels of electrical resistivity. Conductivity can be improved, however, by the judicious use of fillers eg, in epoxy, silver (in either flake or powdered form) is used as a filler. Sometimes other fillers such as copper are also used, but result in reduced efficiency. The popularity of silver is due to the absence of the oxide layer formation, which imparts electrical insulating characteristics. Consequently, metallic fibers such as aluminum are rarely considered for this appHcation. 

Fig. 2. Electrical resistivity, R, of plutonium metal, plotted as 100 R/R y versus absolute temperature (47).

Physical properties of a-crystaUine metallic arsenic are given in Table 1. The properties of P-arsenic are not completely defined. The density of P-arsenic is 4700 kg/m it transforms from the amorphous to the crystalline form at 280 °C and the electrical resistivity is reported to be 107 H-cm. 

BeryUia ceramics offer the advantages of a unique combination of high thermal conductivity and heat capacity with high electrical resistivity (9). Thermal conductivity equals that of most metals at room temperature, beryUia has a thermal conductivity above that of pure aluminum and 75% that of copper. Properties Ulustrating the utUity of beryUia ceramics are shown in Table 2. 

Borides have metallic characteristics such as high electrical conductivity and positive coefficients of electrical resistivity. Many of them, particularly the borides of metals of Groups 4 (IVB), 5 (VB), and 6 (VIB), the MB compounds of Groups 2(11) and 13(111), and the borides of aluminum and siUcon, have high melting points, great hardness, low coefficients of thermal expansion, and good chemical stabiUty. 

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