Vishay Technical Notes Highlight Advantages of Bulk Metal® Foil and Z–Foil Resistor Technologies

MALVERN, PENNSYLVANIA — June 29, 2009 — Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (NYSE: VSH) today announced the availability on its website of four technical notes that provide designers with detailed studies of the advantages of the company's foil resistors.

"Non-Linearity of Resistance Temperature Characteristic: Its Influence on Performance of Precision Resistors" shows how and why Vishay's Z-Foil resistors exhibit the lowest TCR over a wide range of temperatures and the smallest non-linearity of the delta R/R = f(T) curve, thus providing the best solution for applications requiring high stability of the ohmic value and/or of a ratio of values. The technical note further demonstrates how Z-Foil's low TCR over a wide temperature range leads also to a reduction of resistance change due to the Joule effect reducing the thermal stabilization time regardless of ambient temperature and load. Complete text at /doc?60108.

"ESD Sensitivity of Precision Chip Resistors: Comparison between Foil and Thin Film Chips" uses test data to show that foil resistor technologies achieve two orders of magnitude superior stability over thin film chips when subjected to high voltage ESD. This superiority results mainly from a lower temperature rise, a benefit of the much larger thickness and therefore heat capacity of the resistive foil layer compared to thin films. Complete text at /doc?60106.

"Prediction of Drift in Foil Resistors" presents a method for predicting foil resistor behavior under various load conditions and service times which can help design engineers to select the best foil resistor for various high-precision applications. The method allows the maximum value of the drift to be calculated for any combination of load, service time, and required confidence level. Complete text at /doc?63171.

"Pulse Load Capability of Precision Chip Resistors" reports on a series of tests that were performed on precision foil and thin film chip resistors to determine the effect of different pulse types on the devices' stability and precision. The results show that for pulse durations down to 1 ms, the foil and the thin film chips perform similarly, but for shorter pulses the foil chips show a very substantial advantage over thin film chips. Foil's advantage stems from the bulk metal properties of the resistive material resulting in high stability, and from its high thermal capacity as it is about hundred times thicker than the thin film layer. Complete text at /doc?63170.

More information about Vishay Bulk Metal® Foil resistors is available at http://www.vishay.com/resistors-discrete/metal-foil/.

Vishay Intertechnology, Inc., a Fortune 1,000 Company listed on the NYSE (VSH), is one of the world's largest manufacturers of discrete semiconductors (diodes, rectifiers, transistors, and optoelectronics and selected ICs) and passive electronic components (resistors, capacitors, inductors, sensors, and transducers). These components are used in virtually all types of electronic devices and equipment, in the industrial, computing, automotive, consumer, telecommunications, military, aerospace, and medical markets. Its product innovations, successful acquisition strategy, and ability to provide "one-stop shop" service have made Vishay a global industry leader. Vishay can be found on the Internet at http://www.vishay.com.

Bulk Metal is a registered trademark of Vishay Intertechnology