NOVACAP Releases New High-Capacitance Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors
NOVACAP introduced a new line of high-capacitance multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) that are said to combine higher volumetric capacitance per given board area with lower equivalent series resistance (ESR) than alternative solutions. The high-capacitance devices in the new X7R and X5R series are packaged in 0402 to 1812 case sizes with a capacitance value range of 100pF to 100µF.
These devices are suitable for replacing polarized tantalum and electrolytic capacitors to simplify manufacturing. Their low ESR characteristics, said to be typically one to two orders of magnitude lower than alternative devices at frequencies greater than 10 kHZ, allow for comparable filter circuit designs to be achieved at typically one-third to one-fifth of the capacitance values. Additionally, these devices are said to offer improved reliability performance over tantalum and electrolytic capacitors utilizing less power. Typical applications for these capacitors include digital circuits, power supply bypass capacitors, LCD modules, smoothing capacitors and input-output filters in dc-dc converters.
According to Scott Sentz, Novacap’s Director of Marketing, "Novacap is able to offer value-added product processing and test screening to meet each customer’s unique design requirements. These additional benefits typically are not offered by other suppliers."
Novacap’s value-added capabilities for the X7R and X5R series include: ability to provide unique, non-standard plating finishes, such as gold; ability to assemble and stack capacitors to increase capacitance for a given board pad space without imposing a height restriction; ability to use a single pick-and-place step to put the high-capacitance-value devices into an array along with multiple components (i.e., capacitors, resistor, inductors); ability to affix various standard and custom lead frames to improve reliability through thermal and mechanical stress reduction; ability to screen for optimum reliability. Products are burned in at an elevated voltage and temperature and are 100% electrically inspected to ascertain conformance to strict performance criteria; ability to screen capacitor groups to various reliability MIL PRF levels (Group A, Group B, Group C tests) and provide qualification testing for each customer’s SCD requirements; and ability to comply with environmentally friendly standards such as RoHS.
The units are priced at $0.01 – $1.00 per unit, not including value-adding processing, assembly, leading, or high-reliability screening, with a delivery of 8 to 16 weeks ARO, dependent on level of special processing and testing.
