Contact resistance

The term contact resistance refers to the contribution to the total resistance of a system which can be attributed to the contacting interfaces of electrical leads and connections as opposed to the intrinsic resistance, which is an inherent property, independent of the measurement method. The idea of potential drop on the injection electrode was introduced by William Shockley to explain the difference between the experimental results and the model of gradual channel approximation. The term "electrical contact resistance" (ECR), was chosen for the contribution of the metal–semiconductor interface to this phenomenon. "Interface resistance", "transitional resistance", or just simply "correction term" were also used. The term "parasitic resistance" was later used as a more general term, where it is usually still assumed that the contact resistance has a major contribution.