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Attenuators using thin film resistors for RF

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Conference Paper August 2008
DOI: 10.1109/ICEPT.2008.4607011 Source: IEEE Xplore

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Attenuators Using Thin Film Resistors for RF Application

Yiqin Sun1,2Lei Li1, Han Lin1, Zhiyuan Yu2, Mian Huang1, Lixi Wan3
1

Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences/the Chinese University of Hong Kong,
Shenzhen 518067,China
2
School of Physical Electronics, Univ.of Electro. Sci.& and Tech, China 610054, ChengDu,
3
Institute of Microelectronics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 10029, China
Yq_sun@yahoo.cn, lei.li@siat.ac.cn

Abstract
This paper presents a simple methodology for deducing
the resistors of attenuators based on the relationship of S
parameters and ABCD metric. Single attenuators composed
of embedded thin film resisitors simulate up to 20 GHz. For
30 dB attenuators is difficult to implement for wide
bandwidth, cascade attenuators can solve the problem.
Key words: thin film resistor, attenuators, cascade
attenators
Introduction
Embedding passive components (capacitors, resistors,
and inductors) within printed wiring boards (PWB) is one of
a series of technology advances enabling performance
increases, size and weight reductions, and potentially
economic advantages in electronic systems. With the
development of the thin film material, embedding
technology has been realized. A precision integral resistor
process has been successfully developed using resistive
materials such as tantalum nitride (TaN), nickel chromium
(NiCr) and nickel phosphorus (NiP) deposited on
substrate[1][3]. Low cost methodologies of resistor
fabrications are developed, a sheet of copper foil with an
integrated NiCrAlSi resistive layer is laminated to the
substrate[4]. Integrating the thin film onto rolls of copper
foil can be outsourcing from a third party company.
Tolerances are directly related to the etch capability, and a
10% tolerance is achievable using standard processes.
Resistors have several applications in high frequency
circuits such as attenuators, terminations, wilkinson power
divider, stabilishing and feedback elements in transistor
amplifiers et .al. As frequency increasing, the parasitic
effects of embedded risistor in multi-layer circuits become
complication. Models based on EM effects become
necessary. Furthermore, EM oriented models with
physical/geometrical parameter information allow statistical
analysis and yield optimization taking into account process
variations and manufacturing tolerances.
Attenuators are passive resistive elements, they are used
in a wide variety of applications and can satisfy almost any
requirement where a reduction in power is needed.
Attenuators are used to extend the dynamic range of devices
such as power meters and amplifiers, reduce signal levels
and match circuits to prevent any reflections back. The thin
film Resistor attenuators have several good performance
such as Miniature size, high reliability, stable performance,
Easy installation and Design flexibility and so on. There are
five common attenuator topologies used in microwave

circuits, the tee, the pi, the bridged tee, the reflection
attenuator and the balanced attenuator. The tee, pi and
bridged tee each require two different resistor values, while
the reflection and balanced attenuators need only a matched
pair of resistors. Recently, majority of designers use the
attenuator of thin film resistors and their combination which
are transition from Tee-type and Pi-type attenuator, make
the instrumentation and electronic equipment have light
weight, small size, and better performance.
Thin Film Resistor Conductance
In fabrication of thin film resistors, apart from resistor
material, the substrate also plays an important role. Thin
film resistors should be prepared on a suitable substrate for
high frequency microelectronics applications. The basic
requirements for a substrate to be used in thin film resistor
are low dielectric loss and high thermal conductivity. Sheet
resistance is inversely proportional relationship with the film
thickness. An optimal sheet resistance can be realized by
controlling the the film thickness. According to Resistances
law, we obtain the following equations:
L
L
L
R= =
=
(1)
S
W h h W
R =

h
1

(2)

(3)

Where SWLh and is the surface area

widthlengththicknessconductance and resistivity of
the resistance film, respectively. R is the sheet resistance
with units / . the resistors can be calculated in (1) using
the standard DC technique, which is determined by the ratio
of length to width on a planar layer, and have nothing to do
with the area size; the resistivity of the resistor film can be
calculated from the sheet resistance and the thichness of the
thin film in (2), then the conductance can be obtained in (3).
As microwave resistor, the width of resistor is allowed to
adjust to be equal to that of transmission line, So the process
tolerance should be controlled.

Fig.1. (a) Structure of Tee-network Attenuator

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(b) Structure of Pi-network Attenuator

RF Resistor attenuators calculation
In general, Impedance convertor isnt needed in the
input and output port of RF attenuator circuit, for the input
and output impedance is equal to characteristic impedance.
The structure of T-network and Pi-network attenuators,
combination of three resistors R1 and two R2, is shown in
Fig.1.(a). S21 is the magnitude of attenuation, Z 0 is
characteristic impedance ( Z 0 =50Ohm). From the
symmetrical structure, there is S21 = S12 and S11 = S22, and
the attenuator circuit match the impedance of system, there
is S11 = 0 . Two resistor R1 and R2 can be deduced from Sparameter and ABCD metric, which is as follows:
S11 S12 0 S12
T-types S parameter
=
.
S 21 S22 S 21 0
T-types
ABCD
metric

2
R1
R
2 R1 + 1
1 +
R
R2
A B
2
C D =
R
1

1+ 1
R2
R2
According to the relationship of the S-parameters and
ABCD metric, we can obtain the following equations:
R 1 + S 212
A = 1+ 1 =
(4)
R2
2 S 21

B = 2 R1 +
C=

R12
1 S 212
= Z0
R2
2 S21

1
1 1 S212
=

R2 Z 0 2 S21

D = 1+

10
96.3
71.1
30
292.5
17.6
10
26
35.1
Tee
30
46.9
3.2
In the field solver, Both approaches can be used to
define the thin film resistors with appropriate sheet
resistance: using an ideal impedance boundary and defining
resistors conductance of material properties. while the
transmission line portions are represented by copper. The
layout of R1 and R2 are shown in Figure 1 for both the Teenetwork and Pi-network topologies. Table 1 gives the value
for attenuators of a 1/10 and 1/1000 reduction in power
respectively.
Pi

(5)

(6)

2
21

R1 1 + S
=
R2
2S 21

(7)
From (4) and (6), the resistance of R1 and R2, as shown
in Fig. 1, is calculated through the following equations.
1 S21
R1 = Z 0
1 + S21

Figure 2. EM model of Pi-network attenuator

21
1 S 2
21
Similarly, the electrical resistance of resistors R1 and R2
of the Pi-type attenuators is deduction as follows.
1 + S21
R1 = Z 0
1 S21
R = 2Z
2
0

form attenuator can be deduced from S-parameter and

ABCD metric.
Simulation and Analyse
A field solver program uses Maxwell's equations along
with specified boundary conditions to create field solutions
in space and time using ODE and PDE numerical
techniques. These numeric solutions find approximations to
differential equations at specified points that form a mesh
throughout the model. Electromagnetic Simulator was used
to understand the discrepancies between the measurements
and the circuit based model.
Table 1: Attenuator Resistor Values
Type
dB
R1/
R2/

1 S212
R2 = Z 0
2 S21
If the attenuation dB is known, then the magnitude of
attenuation is S 21 = 10

dB
20

.
From the above calculation process, we can conclude
that this method is simple and practical. The resistors of any

Figure 3. 10 dB attenuation
The above table 1 shows that resistor is moderate when
attenuation is 10 dB, take 10 dB Pi-network atteuator for
example, The simulation layout done in HFSS can be seen
in Figure 2. The thickness of the film is 0.4um, sheet
resistance is 25 / . The foil is laminated to 7mil thick
FR4 ( r = 4.0 , tan = 0.012 ) A comparation of the
simulated to the circuit response can be seen in figure 3.
With frequency increasing, the size of the thin film resistor

2008 International Conference on Electronic Packaging Technology & High Density Packaging (ICEPT-HDP 2008)

can be compared with wavelength, thin film resistor become

a lossy transmission line and no longer is DC resistor. When
using longer resistors on low sheet resistance foils, there are
tree primary ingredients: standard transmission line losses
(conductor losses,dielectric losses, and radiation losses),
skin effect and non-uniform lateral currents [4]. Figure 3
shows the same resistance of different size have different
attenuation, the smaller size of resistor is, the better
attenuation is.
Table 2: Cascade Attenuator Resistor Values
Type
dB
R2/
R3/
R1/
30
30
19
25
Tee
15
35
19
When attenuation is 30 dB, resistor is more longer
(292.5 ) or smaller (3.2 ) for lower sheet resistance or
high sheet resistance. Embedded thin film resistors have an
operating range as a result of capacitance to ground [5], very
long resistors tend to show larger parasitic effects, so the
thin film resistor is too longer to adopt the single-network
structure of the attenuators. Casecade atteuator in Figure 4
should be work and could be have a ultra wide band. Table
2 gives the value for two cascade attenuators. Figure 5 and 6
show the insertion loss and vswr of the both anttenuator.
The fluctuation of attenuation is not more than 2.5 within
16GHz.

(a)

(b)

(c)
(d)
Figure 4. (a) One resistor and two Tee-network cascade
attenuator. (b)Two Tee-network cascade attenuator (c) EM
model of a circuit (d) EM model of b circuit

Figure 6. VSWR of 30 dB cascade Attenutor

Conclusions
This paper presented RF attenuators calculation and
model simulation using resistive boundary conditions or
material property in a field solver program using the finite
element method. Adopting cascade attenuators can obtain
ultra wide band. Using control accuracy technique of thin
film resistors can receive desired results.
References
1. Renu Sharma, Seema Vinayak. et al, RF Parameter
Extraction of MMIC Nichrome Resistors, Microwave
and Optical Technology Letters, Vol.39, No.5 (2003),
pp. 409-412.
2. J. T. Wang and S. Clouser, Thin film embedded
resistors, IPC Rev. Jun. 2001, pp. 712.
3. B. P. Mahler, Integral resistors in high frequency
printed wiring boards, Microw. J. vol. 43, no. 2(2000),
pp. 108.
4. Stephen Horst, Swapan Bhattacharya. et al, Modeling
and Characterization of Thin Film Broacband Resistors
on LCP for RF Applications, Proc 56th Electronic
Components and Technology Conf, June (2006) 17511755.
5. F.johsnndmann,R.Henderson. et al, Parameterized RF
Models of Embedded Resistor Components Using EM
Simulation in LTCC Substrates, 13th European
Microelectronics and Packaging Conference &
Exhibition, Proceedings Strasbourg, May.2001, pp.
1210-1213.

Figure 5. 30 dB attenuation
These attenuators are simple and if feeder length is
small, perform very well at high millimeter wave
frequencies.

2008 International Conference on Electronic Packaging Technology & High Density Packaging (ICEPT-HDP 2008)