in an embodiment the conductive powder may include any shape silver powder including spherical particles flakes rods cones plates and mixtures thereof in one embodiment the conductive powder comprises silver flakes in an embodiment flakes is meant as thin flat particles wherein the two lateral dimensions of the flakes are each at least 10 times the thickness the particle sizes disclosed are those of the lateral dimensions in one embodiment the particle size distribution of the silver powders is from 1 to 100 u03bcm in a further embodiment from 2 to 12 u03bcm and in still further embodiments 2 to 10 u03bcm in one embodiment the surface area weight ratio of the silver particles is in the range of 0 1 1 0 m 2 g furthermore it is known that small amounts of other metals may be added to silver conductor compositions to improve the properties of the conductor some examples of such metals include gold silver copper nickel aluminum platinum palladium molybdenum tungsten tantalum tin indium lanthanum gadolinium boron ruthenium cobalt titanium yttrium europium gallium sulfur zinc silicon magnesium barium cerium strontium lead antimony conductive carbon and combinations thereof and others common in the art of thick film compositions the additional metal s may comprise up to about 1 0 percent by weight of.