A zero-ohm link or zero-ohm resistor is a wire link

Wire

A wire is a single, usually cylindrical, flexible strand or rod of metal. Wires are used to bear mechanical loads and to carry electricity and telecommunications signals. Wire is commonly formed by drawing the metal through a hole in a die or draw plate. Standard sizes are determined by various...

 used to connect traces on a printed circuit board

Printed circuit board

A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, tracks or signal traces etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. It is also referred to as printed wiring board or etched wiring...

 that is packaged in the same format as a resistor

Resistor

A linear resistor is a linear, passive two-terminal electrical component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element.The current through a resistor is in direct proportion to the voltage across the resistor's terminals. Thus, the ratio of the voltage applied across a resistor's...

. This format allows it to be placed on the circuit board using same automated equipment used to place other resistors instead of requiring a separate machine to install a jumper

Jumper (computing)

In electronics and particularly computing, a jumper is a short length of conductor used to close a break in or bypass part of an electrical circuit...

 or other wire. Zero-ohm resistors may be packaged like cylindrical resistors, or like surface-mount resistors.

The resistance is only approximately zero; only a maximum (typically 10–50 mΩ) is specified. A fractional tolerance (as a percentage of the zero-ohm ideal value) would be infinite and is not specified.

An axial through-hole zero-ohm resistor is generally marked with a single black band, the symbol for 0 in the resistor color code. Surface-mount

Surface-mount technology

Surface mount technology is a method for constructing electronic circuits in which the components are mounted directly onto the surface of printed circuit boards . An electronic device so made is called a surface mount device...

resistors are generally marked with a single "0" or "000".