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Contact Resistance Calculator

Work out contact resistance instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Contact Resistance Calculator

Contact resistance is specific contact resistivity divided by contact area, so it rises as the inverse square of the contact dimension. At advanced nodes contacts are only tens of nanometres across, making contact resistance comparable to or larger than the channel resistance itself.

Formula

Contact resistance

Rc = rho_c / A; parallel contacts divide the total

Worked example

With the default values below, Contact Resistance Calculator returns Total contact resistance of 122,070.31. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Specific contact resistivity
5 µΩ·cm²
Contact side length
32 nm
Contacts in parallel
4 contacts
Current through the contact
50 µA

Results

Total contact resistance
122,070.31 Ω
Resistance per contact
488,281.25 Ω
Voltage drop
6,103.52 mV
Area per contact
1,024 nm²

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Contact resistance
  3. 3Total contact resistance= 122,070.31 Ω
  4. 4Resistance per contact= 488,281.25 Ω
  5. 5Voltage drop= 6,103.52 mV
  6. 6Area per contact= 1,024 nm²

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is contact resistance a scaling crisis?

Area falls as the square of the linear dimension, so each node roughly doubles contact resistance unless rho_c is improved by new silicides or contact schemes.

Why use multiple contacts?

Parallel contacts divide the resistance and provide redundancy against a single failed or high-resistance contact.

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