阅读说明：本技术 四端子电阻器 (Four-terminal resistor ) 是由 卢契佑 邱正中 于 2019-08-21 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明提供一种四端子电阻器,在基板表面设置大面积且具有几何形状对称的电阻层,电阻层的上设置电极层,该电极层包含二相同几何形状的子电极层以一定间距对称设置,每一子电极层包含一电流端子与一电压检测端子。特别是该电流端子以及电压端子可以互换使用,可提高四端电阻的使用弹性。(The invention provides a four-terminal resistor, wherein a large-area and geometrically symmetric resistor layer is arranged on the surface of a substrate, an electrode layer is arranged on the resistor layer, the electrode layer comprises two sub-electrode layers with the same geometric shape and is symmetrically arranged at a certain interval, and each sub-electrode layer comprises a current terminal and a voltage detection terminal. Particularly, the current terminal and the voltage terminal can be used interchangeably, and the use flexibility of the four-terminal resistor can be improved.)

1. A four-terminal resistor, comprising:

a substrate;

a resistance layer arranged above the substrate, the geometric shape of the resistance layer is symmetrical to the center of the resistance layer;

an electrode layer disposed on the upper surface of the resistive layer, the electrode layer being electrically connected to the resistive layer, the electrode layer extending to the lower surface of the substrate along the side edge of the substrate, wherein the electrode layer includes two sub-electrode layers having the same geometry, the two sub-electrode layers being disposed symmetrically with respect to each other at a distance, each sub-electrode layer including a first terminal and a second terminal, and the first terminal and the second terminal having the same geometry; and

a protective layer disposed on the space between the two sub-electrode layers and covering the resistive layer.

2. The four-terminal resistor of claim 1, wherein the resistive layer substantially covers the upper surface of the substrate.

3. The four-terminal resistor of claim 1, wherein the first terminal is a voltage sense terminal and the second terminal is a current terminal.

4. The four-terminal resistor of claim 1, wherein the first terminal is a current terminal and the second terminal is a voltage sense terminal.

5. The four-terminal resistor of claim 1, wherein the resistive layer has a thickness in the range of 1 μm to 100 μm.

6. The four-terminal resistor of claim 1, wherein the electrode layer has a thickness in the range of 1 μm to 100 μm.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a four-terminal resistor, and more particularly, to a high-power and high-precision four-terminal resistor.

The term "circuit board" as used herein includes printed wiring boards, ceramic boards, flexible boards, multilayer wiring boards, electrode plates for liquid crystal displays or plasma displays, and the like, that is, "circuit boards" include all circuit boards that can be measured as four-terminal resistors.

Background

In general, a four-terminal resistor has two voltage detection terminals and two current terminals, and forms a low resistor for current detection having a four-terminal structure. The four-terminal has the advantages that the voltage detection terminal is arranged, so that detection value errors caused by detection of the lead-out voltage can be eliminated/reduced, and the current can be detected more accurately.

When a large-current small resistor is detected, the resistance between the voltage detection terminal and the current terminal can cause large influence, so that the power consumed wastefully is increased, and the monitoring accuracy is also reduced. In precision instruments and equipment such as medical treatment, testing, converters, controllers, and communications, the accuracy of current control is more demanding, and thus the requirements for power and precision with respect to four-terminal resistors are higher.

Fig. 1 is a top view of a conventional four-terminal resistor structure. The conventional four-terminal resistor includes, from bottom to top, a substrate 10, a resistive layer 12, an electrode layer 11, and a protective layer (not shown). The electrode terminals close to the electrode layer 11 and having a larger area are the current terminals 111, and the electrode terminals having a smaller area are the voltage detection terminals 112, and are usually disposed at four corners of the rectangular outline of the substrate 10.

Although the design of leading out the two voltage detection terminals 112 from the two current terminals 111 can reduce the error in the measurement of the two-terminal resistance, the use limitation condition is increased because the voltage detection terminals 112 and the current terminals 111 have directionality, and in such a design, the resistive layer does not cover the surface of the substrate, and the heat dissipation function of the substrate is not used.

The invention aims to improve the power and precision of the four-terminal resistor, so that the four-terminal resistor is suitable for high-precision instruments, and the symmetrical design avoids the use limitation.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a four-terminal resistor, which can increase the allowable resistance power of the resistor to an upper limit in the same area.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a four-terminal resistor, which has symmetry between the voltage detection terminal and the current terminal of the resistor and can be used interchangeably.

A four-terminal resistor includes a substrate, a resistor layer, an electrode layer and a protective layer. The resistance layer is arranged on the surface of the substrate and basically covers the surface of the substrate. The electrode layer comprises two sub-electrode layers which have the same geometric shape and are arranged above the resistance layer in a spacing and symmetrical mode. The protective layer is arranged above the resistance layer and exposes the electrode layer. Typically, the electrode layer extends along the substrate side surface to below the substrate for soldering circuits on an external circuit board.

The purpose, technical content, features and effects of the present invention will be more readily understood by the following detailed description of the embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a top view of a conventional four-terminal resistor structure.

Fig. 2 is a schematic top view of a four-terminal resistor structure according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 3 is a schematic side sectional view of a four-terminal resistor according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4A is a top view of a four-terminal resistor according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4B is a top view of an electrode layer pattern of a four-terminal resistor according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is an equivalent circuit diagram of a four-terminal resistor according to an embodiment of the invention.

Reference numerals:

1 existing four-terminal resistor

2 four-terminal resistor of the invention

10 base plate

11 electrode layer

12 resistance layer

13 protective layer

111、I₁、I₂Current terminal

112、V₁、V₂Voltage detection terminal

A-A section tangent line

Detailed Description

The following detailed description of the embodiments of the invention is provided in connection with the accompanying drawings. Aside from the details given herein, this invention is capable of broad application to other embodiments and that various other substitutions, modifications, and equivalents may be made in the embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. In the description of the specification, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the invention; however, the present invention may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In other instances, well-known steps or elements have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention. The same or similar elements in the drawings will be denoted by the same or similar symbols. It is noted that the drawings are for illustrative purposes only and do not represent actual sizes or quantities of elements, and some details may not be drawn completely to simplify the drawings.

The present invention is characterized in that a resistance layer substantially covers the upper surface of the substrate and has the largest area to increase the upper limit of the allowable power of the resistance. One electrode layer is composed of two identical sub-electrode layers, which have two terminals with the same shape, one as a current terminal and the other as a voltage detection terminal. The two sub-electrode layers are symmetrically arranged on the resistance layer and can be used interchangeably. Therefore, the resistor has high power and high use flexibility.

Referring to fig. 2, a top view of a four-terminal resistor structure according to an embodiment of the invention is shown. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a four-terminal resistor comprises a substrate 10, a resistive layer 12 disposed on the upper surface of the substrate 10, the resistive layer 12 having a geometric shape symmetrical to the center of the resistive layer 12; an electrode layer 11 disposed on the upper surface of the resistive layer 12, the electrode layer 11 being electrically connected to the resistive layer 12, wherein the electrode layer 11 includes two sub-electrode layers having the same geometric shape, the two sub-electrode layers being separated by a distance and symmetrical to the center of the distance, and the resistive layer 12 being exposed from the distance; each sub-electrode layer comprises a first terminal and a second terminal, and the first terminal and the second terminal have the same geometric shape; the two first terminals and the two second terminals are respectively disposed at four corners of the rectangular outline of the substrate 10.

With reference to fig. 2, the two sub-electrode layers of this embodiment are arranged in a left-right symmetrical manner (or in an up-down or other symmetrical manner), and the two first terminals of the two sub-electrode layers are voltage detection terminals V₁、V₂Wherein the voltage detection terminal V₁And the voltage detection terminal V₂An input end (positive end) and an output end (negative end) respectively, or the opposite is performed; the two second terminals of the two sub-electrode layers are current terminals I₁、I₂Wherein the current terminal I₁And the current terminal I₂Corresponding to the voltage detection terminal V₁And the voltage detection terminal V₂The input end (positive end) and the output end (negative end), or vice versa. The center of the resistive layer 12 is taken as a symmetry point, the resistive layer 12 has a four-quadrant symmetric geometric shape, the two first terminals and the two second terminals have the same geometric shape, and the configuration mode is symmetrical relative to the center of the resistive layer, so that the two current terminals I₁、I₂And two voltage detection terminals V₁、V₂The positions of (a) and (b) may be used interchangeably. Further referring to FIG. 5, it is a schematic circuit diagram of a four-terminal resistor according to an embodiment of the present invention, such as two current terminals I shown in the figure₁、I₂As two voltage detection terminals V₁、V₂When in use, the two original voltage detection terminals V are connected₁、V₂As two current terminals I₁、I₂The four-terminal resistor is convenient to use due to the symmetrical design. This embodiment mainly adopts a rectangular symmetrical geometric shape, and may also be other symmetrical geometric shapes, all belonging to the content of the present invention.

Referring next to fig. 3, a schematic side cross-sectional view of the four-terminal resistor of the present invention is shown. In this embodiment, first, the resistive layer 12 is disposed on the upper surface of the substrate 10, a protection layer 13 covers the upper surface of the resistive layer 12 exposed from the space, and the electrode layer 11 is also disposed on the upper surface of the resistive layer 12, wherein the electrode layer 11 includes two first terminals and two second terminals electrically connected to the resistive layer, exposed from the protection layer 13, and extending to the lower surface of the substrate 10 for connecting to an external circuit, preferably, the resistive layer has a thickness range of 1 μm to 100 μm, and the electrode layer has a thickness range of 1 μm to 100 μm. In particular, the top, bottom, left and right are described herein for ease of description and are not intended to refer to a fixed orientation or direction of the four-terminal resistor.

Referring to FIG. 4A, a top view of the resistive layer pattern according to the embodiment of the invention is shown. The resistive layer 12 is configured in a manner that the center of the resistive layer 12 presents a symmetrical geometric shape, and the symmetrical configuration is a technical feature of the present invention, and the geometric shape and the size thereof are only one of the aspects, not limited to this; the resistive layer 12 of this embodiment has a larger area, so that the heat dissipation area is larger, thereby achieving fast heat dissipation, avoiding hot spot effect, and improving the tolerance of the device for large-current small-resistance devices.

Referring to FIG. 4B, a top view of the electrode layer pattern according to the embodiment of the invention is shown. The electrode layer 11 comprises two symmetrical sub-electrode layers separated by a distance, each sub-electrode layer has a current terminal and a voltage detection terminal (not shown), and the current terminal and the voltage detection terminal are in almost no resistance state, so that the power consumption derived from detection can be reduced. The symmetrical design of the sub-electrode layers makes the positions of the current terminal and the voltage detection terminal interchangeable, and the positions of the input terminal and the output terminal interchangeable, as mentioned above. Compared with the design of the conventional electrode layer, although the two voltage terminals are symmetrical to each other and the two current terminals are symmetrical to each other, the voltage detection terminal and the current terminal are not symmetrical, so that the current terminal and the voltage detection terminal have directionality. Therefore, the symmetrical design of the voltage detection terminal and the current terminal is convenient to use.

With continued reference to FIG. 4B, the electrode layer 11 comprises two symmetrical sub-electrode layers separated by a gap that exposes a portion of the resistive layer 12, typically the distance between the sub-electrode layers can control the current error during voltage detection or reduce the amount of distortion of the conduction current waveform.

The four-terminal resistor of the embodiment of the invention shown in fig. 2 has higher power than the conventional four-terminal resistor shown in fig. 1, and the sustainable power at different sizes is shown in table one.

Watch 1

Size (inch)	General 4 terminal electrode	Novel 4-end electrode
			2010	1/2W	3/4W
1206	1/3W	1/2W

Referring next to fig. 5, an equivalent circuit diagram of the four-terminal resistor of the present invention is shown. In this embodiment, the voltage detection terminal V₁And the current terminal I₁Position and voltage detecting terminal V₂And the current terminal I₂The positions of the two terminals can be simultaneously interchanged, and the voltage detection terminal and the current terminal are connected to be in a nearly resistance-free state, so that the power consumption derived from detection can be reduced, as described above.

With continued reference to fig. 5. In this embodiment, the four electrode terminals of the four-terminal resistor of the present invention are all the same, so that two current terminals I are used₁、I₂And two voltage detection terminals V₁、V₂With the configuration of (3), potential errors can be eliminated or reduced, and the percentage of errors at different sizes is shown in table two.

Watch two

Size (inch)	General 4 terminal electrode	Novel 4-end electrode
			2010	1％	0.5％
1206	1％	0.5％

The above-mentioned embodiments are merely illustrative of the technical spirit and features of the present invention, and the purpose thereof is to enable those skilled in the art to understand the content of the present invention and to implement the same, so that the scope of the present invention should not be limited thereto, i.e., all equivalent changes and modifications made in the spirit of the present invention should be covered by the scope of the present invention.