Aging of iron manganite negative temperature coefficient thermistors

“Aging,” defined as the drift of resistance with temperature after 1000 h, was investigated for iron manganite temperature coefficient thermistors. For these devices, aging is relatively large, about 10%. The cationic distributions before and after aging were determined by Mössbauer spectroscopy. These distributions explain all the x-ray diffraction and correlated electrical data. The origin of the aging observed on iron manganites thermistors has been identified. It is due to the migration of Fe³⁺ ions from tetrahedral to octahedral sites of the spinel structure in order to reach a structural equilibrium.