Ceramic Capacitor

About Ceramic Capacitor

Ceramic is the dielectric material used in the manufacture of ceramic capacitor.  Dielectrics are the insulating material between the plates of capacitors.  This material is chosen for its ability to permit electrostatic attraction and repulsion to take place across it.  Ceramic is an excellent dielectric material because it is a poor conductor of electricity while being an effective supporter of electrostatic fields.

ceramic capacitors are manufactured using a tape casting process wherein thin layers of conductive electrodes are separated by a dielectric layer, and a kind of multi-layer “sandwich” is formed to create a ceramic capacitor with a very large surface area in a very compact size.  Recently, the combination of nickel electrodes and the ability to cast very thin layers has allowed the capacitance range of ceramic capacitors to exceed more than 100μF in an 1812 package, using X5R dielectric material.  With the ability to stack hundreds of layers to form a single high-density, high-capacitance multilayer ceramic capacitor, new application opportunities, that were previously the sole domain of tantalum capacitors, are now available for ceramic capacitors.  One of the driving forces for the increased capacitance values in ceramic capacitors was the tantalum shortage of 2000.

Prior to the use of nickel electrode systems, Palladium (Pd) and Silver (Ag) were the most common electrode materials.  This precious metal became cost prohibitive when making very high-capacitance, high-layer count ceramic capacitors.  Palladium and silver are still widely used for ceramic capacitors with lower capacitance values.

High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor

High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor Features

1. New monolithic structure
2. The size of the capacitor is small, yet has high electrostatic capacitance, can operate at high-voltage levels.
3. Has good solderability.
4. Technology Parameter

High Voltage Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor Application

1. DC-DC converter.
2. The circuit filter and vibration bell of telephone, electrograph and modem.
3. Snubber circuit for switching power supply.

Ceramic Disc Capacitor

Ceramic Disc Capacitor Features

1. Linear temperature coefficient of capacitance.
2. High stability of capacitance.
3. Low loss at wide ranfe of frequency.

Disc Ceramic Capacitor Specifications

1. OPERATING TEMPERATURE RANGE -25°C TO +85°C
2. RATED WORKING VOLTAGE DC 50V, 500V
3. TEST VOLTAGE 3 times of the rated voltage
4. CAPACITANCE Within the tolerance at 1 MHz, 1±0.2 Vrms. 25°C
5. Q FACTOR At 1 MHz. 1±0.2 Vrms. 25°C
6. INSULATION RESISTANCE 10,000 MΩmin.

Disc Ceramic Capacitor images

Ceramic Capacitor

Ceramic Capacitors HF use

Ceramic capacitors are suitable for moderately high-frequency work (into the high hundreds of megahertz range, or, with great care, into the low gigahertz range), as modern ceramic capacitors are fairly non-inductive compared to the other major classes of capacitors (film and electrolytic). Capacitor technologies with higher self-resonant frequencies tend to be expensive and esoteric (typically, mica or glass capacitors).

Ceramic capacitors come in various shapes and styles

1. disc, resin coated, with through-hole leads
2. multilayer rectangular block, surface mount
3. bare leadless disc, sits in a slot in the PCB and is soldered in place, used for UHF work
4. tube shape, not popular now
5. EEStor's high capacitance barium titanate "EESU" designed for electric vehicles is a Ceramic capacitor.

Ceramic Capacitor

Ceramic capacitors are constructed with materials such as titanium acid barium used as the dielectric. Internally, these capacitors are not constructed as a coil, so they can be used in high frequency applications. Typically, they are used in circuits which bypass high frequency signals to ground. These Ceramic capacitors have the shape of a disk. Their capacitance is comparatively small, Above about the Ceramic Capacitor information content.

The Ceramic capacitor on the left is a 100pF capacitor with a diameter of about 3 mm.
The Ceramic capacitor on the right side is printed with 103, so 10 x 103pF becomes 0.01 µF. The diameter of the disk is about 6 mm.
Ceramic capacitors have no polarity. Ceramic capacitors should not be used for analog circuits, because they can distort the signal.

Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors

The multilayer ceramic capacitor has a many-layered dielectric. These capacitors are small in size, and have good temperature and frequency characteristics.This capacitor is used to bypass the high frequency to ground, Above about the Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors information content.

In the photograph, the capacitance of the component on the left is displayed as 104. So, the capacitance is 10 x 104 pF = 0.1 µF. The thickness is 2 mm, the height is 3 mm, the width is 4 mm.
The Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor to the right has a capacitance of 103 (10 x 103 pF = 0.01 µF). The height is 4 mm, the diameter of the round part is 2 mm.These Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors are not polarized. That is, they have no polarity, Above about the Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors information content.