We offer zero ohm resistors manufactured with ceramic, carbon film, metal, thick and thin film technologies, with current ratings from 500mA to 200A.
What is a zero ohm resistor?
A zero ohm resistor is a single resistor that is manufactured to have zero ohms of resistance when measured. A through-hole resistor with zero ohms is often marked with a single black band, which indicates the value of the resistance.
Meanwhile, a surface mount ceramic resistor will have a single or a multiple number of zeros to represent this zero ohm resistance. You can also imagine zero ohm resistors as jumper wires that are shaped as typical resistors. Measuring a zero ohm resistor with a multimeter will return in a reading that approaches zero ohm.
You may wonder why zero ohm resistors are necessary, when a jumper wire could do the same job. Certainly, if you’re building a PCB with manual placement and soldering, using a jumper wire is probably the best way to establish connections between pads. However, mass production involves a pick-and-place machine, which doesn’t have the capability of unrolling and cutting jumper wires. In such cases, a separate machine is needed for jumper wires – but this adds setup and processing costs and requires more equipment and space. Therefore, zero ohm resistors which can be handled by a pick and place machine like any other SMT component are the perfect alternative that saves cost and time in assembly.
How do you test a zero-ohm resistor?
For a resistor component such as an SMD resistor, the zero ohm resistor is basically specified as DC resistance, not AC impedance. The accuracy of the zero ohm resistor at DC should be tested by using a precise digital multi-meter (DMM) such as the Keysight 34420A.
To evaluate AC impedance characteristic of the zero ohm resistor, the E4980A or the E4990A should be used with a Kelvin contact test fixture such as the 16047A (for the leaded resistor) or the 16044A (for the SMD resistor.) Since the AC impedance at low frequencies is very small and difficult to measure, the AC impedance should be measured at a high frequency above 1 MHz.
