Electrical conduction in metal-glass composite materials

The importance of the surface characteristics of the glass phase used in the development of conducting thick film systems was investigated. The system studied was the lead borosilicate glass-silver system. By surface activation of the glass particles, a conducting thick film microstructure was developed using a reduced amount of silver compared to commerical compositions. Thick films with resistivities of the order of 75 milliohms/square (m omega square) with a silver content of 30 wt.% (w/o) was obtained. The resistance is comparable to the 50 milliohms/square obtained with 80 wt.% Pt in Pt-Pd commercial systems.