Industry News
Precision resistors play vital role in analog circuits of seismic instruments
Date:2019-08-06
The digital seismic equipment that amplifies and records reflected seismic signals on a wideband receiver and tape drive in the field utilizes matched and discrete surface-mount foil resistors. Metal foil resistors manufatures target this field for a long time and provide various resistors, like NMS4527, NMS2818 and MPR series by Microhm.
 
For these applications, high-precision foil resistors assure virtually noise-free operation. They offer predictable responses and very precise tracking of amplifiers within an individual seismic system or among several interrelated systems- whether operating in the high-humidity heat of the jungle or in the dry cold of the Arctic. When signals are later reconstructed during analysis, the precision-built amplifiers guarantee that the geologist can base their predications on precise, accurate data.
 
Foil resistors are available that excel over all previous stability standards for precision resistors with an order of magnitude improvement in temperature stability, load-life stability, and moisture resistance, all of which become more critical in our unpredictable global climate. These new benchmark levels of performance provide design engineers with the tools to build analog circuits not previously achievable, while reducing costs in the most critical circuits by eliminating the need for corrective circuitry used only for the purpose of stabilizing or iterating accuracy in previous stages of the circuit path.
 
Before this foil technology, high-frequency precision applications were only served by precision metal-film resistors, but these are not as accurate or as stable as wirewound resistors, which do not have good high-frequency response. The new foil technology presents designers with resistive components that are even higher precision than wirewounds, but are also well suited for high-frequency and high- temperature applications.
 
Foil technology produces small surface-mount resistors not achievable with wirewounds, while offering greater accuracy and stability than thin film resistors. Resistors are available in sizes as small as 0603 that can serve as on-board secondary standards going anywhere the equipment goes - even into deep space.