Resistive pastes have a comparatively low conductivity, and resistance values range from 10 mΩ to several tens of MΩ, achieved through high-temperature firing. In general, although conductive pastes are designed to elicit the characteristics of elements such as electronic circuit wiring, dielectric materials, thermistors and varistors, resistive pastes are functional materials that turn these materials into electronic components (resistive elements).

Resistive pastes are composed of ruthenium oxide powder and/or metal ruthenate powder as the conductive material, and glass powder as the insulating material. After firing, the desired resistance values are achieved through the composite structure of these materials without sintering. In other words, we utilize the linear transformation characteristics from a low resistive value to a high resistive value by freely allocating proportions of conductive ruthenium oxide powder and insulating glass powder.

Further, as the characteristics of this paste vary due to Joule thermogenesis, resistive paste has a great number of items to be controlled.