IRC, Inc., Advanced Film Division (AFD)
The Company specializes in the application of various resistor film systems to substrate material to form resistors, sensors and other resistive type devices. There are three basic film systems utilized, each serving specific markets with unique desirable characteristics.
Automotive heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems utilize the high power, low value, high temperature capabilities of IRC's proprietary thick film inks to control blower fan speed. These same characteristics are beneficial for dashlight dimmers. This thick film technology also has superior ultra-low resistance performance to produce low value current sense resistors. They are used in a wide variety of battery management systems for hand held electronic equipment such as note book computers, cellular telephones, and test equipment. The current sense chip resistor has also achieved a wide acceptance in computer disk drives.
Tantalum Nitride is a thin film resistor system that the Company has developed into the premier ultra-precision resistor technology. It is used to manufacture a broad range of conventional resistor packages for both through hole and surface mount applications. IRC-AFD TaNFilm, TaNSil and TanCap (resistor/capacitor networks) resistor products are specified worldwide for applications where stability, reliability, and precision are required. Target markets for Tantalum Nitride resistor products from IRC-AFD are automotive, telecommunication, computer, instrumentation, military, medical devices, and industrial process control.
IRC-AFD resistive-temperature devices(RTD) are used in mass air flow measurement to control the fuel-air mixture for high efficiency, low emissions from auto engines. They are also used in industrial and medical application. The resistor technologies employed in these temperature sensing devices are either platinum films or proprietary nickel thin film materials.