A thin-film gold conductor for an integrated circuit in a satellite application is deposited from a vapor, and the deposited gold thin film has a high resistivity. It is proposed that the high resistivity is due to a high non-equilibrium vacancy concentration, created when the vapor atoms rapidly condense into the thin film. To reduce the vacancy concentration, it is proposed to anneal (heat) the gold to a temperature that will result in only 1 vacancy for every 108 gold atoms, and then to cool the film slowly to room temperature. The enthalpy of formation for 1 vacancy in gold is equal to 0.94 eV. Specify the temperature