Topics under Discussion:

1) Introduction.

2) Classification of Resistors.

3) Power rating of Resistors.

4) Colour coding of Resistors.

5) Identification of Resistors.

6) Applications and shortcomings.

7) Troubles with Resistors.

8) Conclusion.
About Resistors:

Resistors are made for the express purpose of creating a precise quantity of resistance for
insertion into a circuit. They are typically constructed of metal wire or carbon and engineered to
maintain a stable resistance value over a wide range of environmental conditions.
Unlike lamps, they do not produce light, but they do produce heat as electric power is
dissipated by them in a working circuit. Typically, though, the purpose of a resistor is not to
produce usable heat, but simply to provide a precise quantity of electrical resistance.
A resister is an electrical component, which has been manufactured with specified
amount of resistance. A resistor can conduct current in both directions. The resistors are mainly
used for two purposes, namely to controlling the flow of current & providing the desired amount
of voltage in electric or electronic circuit.

Symbolic Representations:

Fixed resistance
(Figure. 1)

CLASSIFICATION OF RESISTORS:

The resistors are basically of two types, namely Linear

and non-linear resistors.
A) LINEAR RESISTORS:
The resistors through which the current is directly proportional to the applied
voltage are called as linear resistors.
Such resistors have property that their resistance values do not change with applied
voltage, temperature or light intensity.
They are further divided in to two types Fixed resistors and Variable resistors.

a) FIXED RESISTORS:

Fixed resistors are those whose values do not change with variation in applied voltages,
temperature & light intensity. · Such resistors are available in various shapes and sizes with both
axial and radial leads. Fixed resistors are of following types:-

i) Carbon Composition resistors:

Carbon composition resistors consist of a solid cylindrical resistive element

with embedded wire leads or metal end caps to which the lead wires are attached. The body of the
resistor is protected with paint or plastic. Early 20th-century carbon composition resistors had
uninsulated bodies; the lead wires were wrapped around the ends of the resistance element rod
and soldered. The completed resistor was painted for color coding of its value.

The resistive element is made from a mixture of finely ground (powdered)

carbon and an insulating material (usually ceramic). A resin holds the mixture together. The
resistance is determined by the ratio of the fill material (the powdered ceramic) to the carbon.
Higher concentrations of carbon, a weak conductor, result in lower resistance. Carbon
composition resistors were commonly used in the 1960s and earlier, but are not as popular for
general use now as other types have better specifications, such as tolerance, voltage dependence,
and stress (carbon composition resistors will change value when stressed with over-voltages).

Moreover, if internal moisture content (from exposure for some length of

time to a humid environment) is significant, soldering heat will create a non-reversible change in
resistance value. These resistors, however, if never subjected to overvoltage or overheating were
remarkably reliable.
 A carbon
composition
resistor, Figure.2

ii) Thin film resistors:

These resistors are made by depositing very thin layer of conducting
material on an insulated rod, tube or plate made of ceramic or glass. Thin film resistors are again
divided into following two types;

1) Carbon film resistors:

The most popular resistor type. These resistors are made by depositing a carbon
film onto a small ceramic cylinder. A small spiral groove cut into the film controls
the amount of carbon between the leads, hence setting the resistance. Such
resistors show excellent reliability, excellent solder ability, noise stability,
moisture stability, and heat stability. Typical power ratings range from 1/4 to 2 W.
Resistances range from about 10 Ω to 1 MΩ, with tolerances around 5 percent.
They are cheaper than carbon composition resistor.

Figure.3
shows a
carbon film
resistor.

2) Metal film resistors:

These resistors are made by depositing a thin layer of metal on ceramic or glass
rod. The film is spiral cut to adjust the resistance value.
 Figure.
4, a metal
film
resistor

iii) Thick film resistors:

These resistors are made by technique similar to the thin film
resistors. Thick film resistors are of following three types;

1) Metal oxide film resistors:

These are manufactured by oxidizing tin chloride on heated
glass substrate. These resistors are mechanically and electrically stable and readable during
high temperature operation. They contain a special paint on their outer surfaces making them
resistant to flames, solvents, heat, and humidity. Typical resistances range from 1 Ω to 200
kΩ, with typical tolerances of ±5 %.

Figure. 5
a metal
oxide
resistor
 3) Cermet film resistors:
These are made by placing a coating of metal alloy along
with insulating material on ceramic substrate. The combination is then fixed into ceramic
metal called as Cermet.

Cermet
resistors

Figure. 6

iv) Wire wound resistors:

Wire wound resistors are commonly made by winding a metal wire,

usually nichrome, around a ceramic, plastic, or fiberglass core. The ends of the wire are soldered
or welded to two caps or rings, attached to the ends of the core. The assembly is protected with a
layer of paint, molded plastic, or an enamel coating baked at high temperature.

Wire leads in low power wire wound resistors are usually

between 0.6 and 0.8 mm in diameter and tinned for ease of soldering. For higher power wire
wound resistors, either a ceramic outer case or an aluminum outer case on top of an insulating
layer is used. The aluminum-cased types are designed to be attached to a heat sink to dissipate the
heat; the rated power is dependent on being used with a suitable heat sink.

Because wire wound resistors are coils they have more

undesirable inductance than other types of resistor, although winding the wire in sections with
alternately reversed direction can minimize inductance. Other techniques employ bifilar winding,
or a flat thin form.
 A wire
wound
resistor
.
Figure

b) VARIABLE RESISTORS:

These resistors, like fixed resistors are used to control current flow and provide desired
amount of voltage in electric or electronic circuit. The resistance values of variable linear
resistors can be varied from 0 to the specified value.

Variable resistors provide varying degrees of resistance that can be set with the turn of a
knob. Special kinds of variable resistors include potentiometers, rheostats, and trimmers.
Potentiometers and rheostats are essentially the same thing, but rheostats are used specially for
high power AC electricity, whereas potentiometers typically are used with lower level DC
electricity.
Both potentiometers and rheostats are designed for frequent adjustment. Trimmers, on
the other hand, are miniature potentiometers that are adjusted infrequently and usually come with
pins that can be inserted into PCB. They are used for fine tuning circuits (e.g.: fine tuning a
circuit), and they are usually hidden within a circuit’s enclosure box. Variable resistors are of
following three types;

i) Rheostats:
The resistive element of rheostats is made of highly resistive material
wire like nichrome wire. It has got two terminals and is connected in series with the circuit for the
purpose of controlling the amount of current flowing through the circuit.
Although similar in construction to potentiometers, these are usually
larger in size as they are used in circuits with much higher power ratings.
 Figure.8
shows a
typical
rheostat,
generally
used in

ii) Potentiometers:
Its outer terminals are fixed and middle terminal is variable. The
variation is provided by a wiper connected to a control shaft. When control shaft is moved, the
wiper moves over a resistive element. This movement provides continuous variation in resistance
between the middle terminal and either outside terminal. The name potentiometer comes from the
use of this device as a potential meter.

A general purpose
potentiometer shown in
Figure. 9 are
commonly employed in
instruments like Radio,
speakers for adjusting
the volume level.

iii) Trimmers:
These are used in electronics circuits to trim the circuit to the required
operating conditions by inserting a small screw driver into a slot and turning one or more times.
The trimmers are available both in single and multi turns.
The materials used in the construction of trimmers are carbon compositions, carbon film
cermets and wire. The trimmers are available for resistance values ranging from 50 Ω to 5 MΩ,
with power rating of ¼ to ¾ watts.
 Figure. 10
shows trimmers
used inside the
circuit for fine
tuning as done
in a radio
receiver with

B) NON- LINEAR RESISTORS:

The resistors through which the current is not directly proportional to the
applied voltage are called as non linear resistors.
Such resistors have property that their resistance values change with the
variation in applied voltage, temperature or light intensity.
They are further divided in to three types Thermistors, photo
resistors and Varistors.

These resistors are made from semiconducting materials. The non-linear

properties of these resistors arise due to breaking of covalent bonds in semiconducting materials.
The source energy for creating the charge carriers in semiconducting materials may be voltage,
temperature or incident light. The non-linear resistors are of three types:

a) Thermistors:
A word thermistor stands for thermal resistor i.e. temperature sensitive
resistor.
It is used to detect small change in temperature. The variation in
temperature is reflected through a variation of resistance of device.
Thermistors with both positive temperature coefficient (PTC) and negative
temperature coefficient (NTC) are available but (NTC) is most common.
 1) A Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) resistor is a
resistor with a positive temperature coefficient. When the temperature rises
the resistance of the PTC increases. PTCs are often found in televisions in
series with the demagnetizing coil where they are used to provide a short-
duration current burst through the coil when the TV is turned on.
2) A Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) resistor is
also a temperature-dependent resistor, but with a negative temperature
coefficient. When the temperature rises the resistance of the NTC drops.
NTCs are often used in simple temperature detectors and measuring
instruments.

Fig. 11 shows two

different
thermisters.

b) Photo resistors:
These are also called as photo-conductive cells. The photo resistors are made
from semiconductor materials, whose resistance changes when illuminated with light energy.
Such materials are cadmium sulphide (CdS), cadmium selenide (CdSe) and lead sulphide (PbS).
When these materials are exposed to the light, the covalent bonds are
broken. These produces charge carriers. The greater the amount of light falling on the surface,
greater will be the number of electron-hole pairs generated and therefore lower will be the
amount of resistance. Lower the amount of light falling on the surface, higher will be the value of
resistance of the material.
 Figure.
12 a
photo
resistive

c) Varistors:

The varistors are voltage dependant resistors (VDR) these are used to protect
the circuitry from high energy voltage transients by rapidly changing from high standby
resistance to low conducting resistance. This action of varistor clamps the voltage to the safe
level.

The most common type of varistor is the Metal Oxide Varistor (MOV). This
contains a ceramic mass of zinc oxide grains, in a matrix of other metal oxides (such as small
amounts of bismuth, cobalt, manganese) sandwiched between two metal plates (the electrodes).
The boundary between each grain and its neighbor forms a diode junction, which allows current
to flow in only one direction. The mass of randomly oriented grains is electrically equivalent to a
network of back-to-back diode pairs, each pair in parallel with many other pairs.
When a small or moderate voltage is applied across the electrodes, only a
tiny current flows, caused by reverse leakage through the diode junctions. When a large voltage is
applied, the diode junction breaks down due to a combination of thermionic emission and
electron tunneling, and a large current flow. The result of this behavior is a highly nonlinear
current-voltage characteristic, in which the MOV has a high resistance at low voltages and a low
resistance at high voltages.
 A typical
varistor is
shown in
this
Figure.

Power Rating of Resistors:

The power rating of a resistor is given by the maximum wattage it can
dissipate without excessive heat. Since the output heat is due to the applied current,
therefore power rating also gives some indication of the value of the current the resistor
can safely maintain across it. If the current exceeds this safe value then ultimately the
resistor will burn out.
A burnt out resistor with a lower wattage rating can be replaced by
another with a higher rating of wattage but not vice-versa. The physical size of a resistor
doesn’t represent its resistance value though it gives some indication towards the wattage
of the resistor. For a given value of resistance, greater the physical size, higher the power
rating.

Resistor Color coding:

Since fixed carbon composition resistors having axial leads are
physically small, they are colour coded to indicate their resistance in ohms. In this system of
notation colours being painted on the body of the resistors corresponds to some predefined
numerical values. In general dark colours like black and brown correspond to lowest numbers,
i.e.: 0 and 1 respectively and the light colours indicate higher numerical values.
Identification of Resistors:

Color 1st band 2nd band 3rd band (multiplier) 4th band (tolerance) Temp. Coefficient

Black 0 0 ×100

Brown 1 1 ×101 ±1% 100 ppm

Red 2 2 ×102 ±2% 50 ppm

Orange 3 3 ×103 15 ppm

Yellow 4 4 ×104 25 ppm

Green 5 5 ×105 ±0.5%

Blue 6 6 ×106 ±0.25%

Violet 7 7 ×107 ±0.1%

Gray 8 8 ×108 ±0.05%

White 9 9 ×109

Gold ×10−1 ±5%

Silver ×10−2 ±10%

None ±20%
 Most axial resistors use a pattern of coloured stripes to indicate resistance. This is called
colour coding in which process the resistors get a series of colour bands which helps in
calculating their resistance value. Accordingly resistors can be categorized as Three Band, Four
Band, and Five Band axial resistors.

Four band axial resistors:

Four band identification is the most commonly used colour coding
scheme on all resistors. It consists of four coloured bands that are painted around the body of the
resistor. The first two numbers are the first two significant digits of the resistance value, the third
is a multiplier, and the fourth is the tolerance value of the resistor. Each colour corresponds to a
certain number, shown in the chart below.

Three band axial resistors:

A three band resistor can be identified from the colour code. Absence of
the fourth band indicates the tolerance is 20%.

Five band axial resistors:

 Five band identification is the same as that occurs in case of a four

band resistor except a 5th band which determines the quality/reliability of the given resistor. Five
band identification is used for higher tolerance resistors (1%, 0.5%, 0.25%, 0.1%), to notate
the extra digit. The first three bands represent the significant digits, the fourth is the
multiplier, and the fifth is the tolerance. Five band standard tolerance resistors are
sometimes encountered, generally on older or specialized resistors. They can be identified
by noting a standard tolerance color in the 4th band. The 5th band in this case is the
temperature coefficient .

Calculating Resistor Values:

The Resistor Colour Code system is all well and good. The "left-hand" or
the most significant coloured band is the band which is nearest to a connecting lead with the
colour coded bands being read from left-to right.

For example, a Resistor has the following coloured markings;

Yellow Violet Red.

Then resistance is given by,

{Yellow (4) × 10+ Violet (7)}× 102 = 4700Ω = 4.7 KΩ.
If the fourth band is gold, silver, brown, red, green, blue, violet, or blank then the tolerance
of the resistor can be given as 5%, 10%, 1%, 2%, 0.5%, 0.25%, 0.1%, and 20% respectively.
Some Applications of Resistors:
 As current limiter: By placing a resistor in series with another
component, such as a light-emitting diode, the current through
that component is reduced to a known safe value.
 As attenuator: An attenuator is a network of two or more
resistors (a voltage divider) used to reduce the voltage of a
signal.
 As line terminator: A line terminator is a resistor at the end of a
transmission line, designed to match impedance and hence
minimize reflections of the signal.
 As heaters: All resistors dissipate heat. This is the principle
behind electric heaters .

Troubles with Resistors:

The most common trouble with resistors is that, due to excessive heat
and current it opens up the circuit. Therefore a charred or discoloured resistor should be replaced
with a new one, though it’ll check well with an ohmmeter.

Conclusion:
Although we may think that resistors don’t play any kind of significant
role within electrical as well as electronic circuits, but they do play much important role as far as
these circuits are concerned and without any ambiguity.
Without proper load or proper biasing no active circuit can work out in
a stable manner as without proper biasing. In most cases circuits without resistors may be open
and will do no significant work as well.
Therefore resistors cannot be taken as normal electrical/electronic
component, although they are widely used in almost every kind of circuits.
References:

1) www.wikipedia.com

2) www.ask.com

3) www.scribd.com

4) www.pdfdatabase.com

5) www.fileshare.com

6) www.rapidshare.com

7) Basic Electronics, Solid State (B.L.Thereja, S.Chand

publication)