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8.98

University of Leeds

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Can anyone advise me how to calculate resistivity of a

rectangular 'thick film'.

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I used two electrodes and measured Impedance using EIS. I only know the
rectangular dimensions and not the film thickness.
Is impendance dependent on the spacing of the electrodes?
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Thin Films and Nanotechnology

Thin Films

Corrosion

Materials

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Material Characterization
Aug 15, 2013

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Muhammad Balyan
University of Sumatera...

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Adam Johan Bergren
Canada

28.05 141.86 National Research Council

Well, resistivity is dependent on the current pathway, which will depend at

least in some way on thickness. The best way to measure the resistivity is
to have some independent thickness data, and then use a four electrode
setup. Here, sourcing current across the outer two contacts, and then
measuring the voltage drop across the center two contacts can be used
to get resistivity values (a standard four point probe method).
And yes, the spacing of the electrodes is critical since Rho = (R*(A/l),
where Rho is resistivity, A is cross sectional area, and l is the length over
which the current flows and voltage is applied. Note that strictly speaking,
in order to apply such basic equations, the current flow must be very welldefined, and in real samples a shape factor is needed to correct for the
actual shape of the current path in real samples.
Most four point probes come pre-calibrated for probe spacing and various
shape factors (for the most common sample geometries). If you don't
have access to one of these, then you would want to do the measurement
using well-defined probe spacing. Also, getting an idea of the thickness
can at least give you a range of Rho values.
2 / 0 Aug 15, 2013

Steven Mudenda

8.98 9.2 University of Leeds

Thank you for that info. I guess this method can only measure electronic
conductivity. My sample is an electroceramic where am interested in the
ionic conductivity. The four point probe seems to only measure electronic
conductivity but cant resolve to ionic +electronic.
how can i go round that challenge
Aug 15, 2013

Adam Johan Bergren

Canada

28.05 141.86 National Research Council

Ah, that helps. What exactly is the sample, and what parameters are you
attempting to measure?
Aug 16, 2013

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LiF, SiO2, Al2O3?

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Steven Mudenda

8.98 9.2 University of Leeds

The sample is NASICON.......Na3Zr2Si2PO12. I am only interested in the

conductivity but of course I got to measure its resistance.
Aug 16, 2013

Peter Ross Underhill

30.81 86.66 Royal Military College of Canada

If you have some standards with "known" resitivity you could use eddy
currents. Since you are interested in ionic conductivity, the results may
well be frequency dependent
1 / 0 Aug 16, 2013

Adam Johan Bergren

Canada

28.05 141.86 National Research Council

Not my work, but try this:

http://jes.ecsdl.org/content/143/4/1254.short
If you need a full text, let me know.
Aug 16, 2013

Steven Mudenda

8.98 9.2 University of Leeds

Thanks Adam, will go through it. Your help is well treasured. Peter, how do
I go about it using eddy currents. Any article or book I can read through.
Aug 16, 2013

Peter Ross Underhill

30.81 86.66 Royal Military College of Canada

I thought about this a bit and it would depend on whether your film was
unsupported or not and what the conductivity of the substrate was like
relative to the film. Basically the idea is that you put a coil up against the
film and pass a sinusoidally varying current through it to produce a
sinsusoidally varying magentic field. The time varying field produces eddy
currents in the sample. the skin depth is prportional to
1/sqrt(f*conductivity*permeability). So by making f high enough you can
make the depth of penetration as small as you like. One advantage of this
approach is that you can do it dry (don't know if that is an advantage for
you). Obviously you would like the substrate to have a conductivity of
zero. The way this is normally done, you you measure the relative
impedance difference in the drive coil due to standards spanning the
range of conductivity you are interested in and your unknown and
interpolate to get the conductivity. The result will be sensitive to any
variation in lift-off (distance between your coil and the sample). Sensitivty
can be improved using secondary pick-up coils and differential
configurations. I think the biggest question for you is whether or not your
conductivity shows a huge frequency difference. Sensitivity to you film is
improved by making the frequency very high. If you think this is still worth
pursuing, I can try and give you some more details
1 / 0 Aug 19, 2013

Steven Mudenda

8.98 9.2 University of Leeds

Thanks Peter. Details please. This is really interesting

Aug 19, 2013

Peter Ross Underhill

30.81 86.66 Royal Military College of Canada

Wihout knowing something of the details of your films and the substrates
they are on, its hard to give specifics. I did a quick search using
"conductivity" & "eddy current" & "thin flm" and came up with a number of
interesting hits including
Sub surface material characterization using high frequency eddy current
spectroscopy

Heuer, Henning (Fraunhofer Institute for Non-Destructive Testing,

Dresden, Germany); Hillmann, Susanne; Klein, Marcus; Meyendorf, Norbert
Source: Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings, v 1195, p
253-258, 2010, Reliability and Materials Issues of Semiconductor Optical
and Electrical Devices and Materials
The folk at the Fraunhofer Institute do some clever stuff with eddy
currents.
1 / 0 Aug 19, 2013

Muhammad Balyan University of Sumatera Utara

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