Ceramic capacitors are a general term for capacitors that use ceramic materials as a dielectric. There are many types of ceramic capacitors, and their shapes and sizes vary greatly. Among them, multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) are currently the most widely used capacitors in circuits.

Unique advantages of MLCC

1. High capacitance tolerance. Compared with single-layer capacitors, MLCCs use multi-layer stacking technology, giving them a wider capacitance range.

2. Ultra-small size. The rapid pace of product updates and upgrades in devices such as smartphones is driving a trend toward lighter and thinner designs. This necessitates capacitors with ultra-small dimensions, and current product sizes are increasingly moving toward smaller dimensions.

3. Excellent high-frequency properties. Improvements in material quality have enabled MLCCs to utilize corresponding ceramic materials across all frequency bands to achieve low resistance and impedance, resulting in excellent performance in high-frequency circuits. Additionally, MLCCs feature excellent non-polarity, making them more convenient for assembly and use.

4. High rated voltage. After high-temperature sintering technology, the ceramic structure becomes more compact, and its voltage range becomes wider, enabling it to meet different circuit operating standards.

5. Low equivalent series resistance (ESR). The ESR of MLCCs is typically only a few milliohms. The lower the ESR, the less heat the component generates during operation, allowing most of the energy to be used for the operation of electronic devices, improving the performance of the component, and extending the service life of the capacitor.

MLCC Development Trends

1. High capacity in a small volume

Miniaturization is an ever-present trend in the development of electronic components. MLCC, one of the world's most widely used and fastest growing chip components, is no exception. With the gradual increase in circuit data transmission speeds and the continuous expansion of memory capacity and functionality, the demand for low-voltage, high-capacity, ultra-small, and ultra-thin MLCCs has grown rapidly.

2. High reliability

In high-reliability applications, higher requirements are placed on the service life and reliability of MLCCs. For example, the duration of steady-state damp heat (low voltage) testing has been increased from 240 hours to 1,000 hours, and the high-temperature service life testing time has been set at 125°C, etc.

3. High-temperature and high-pressure

In order to adapt to the development of certain electronic equipment and devices toward high power and high voltage resistance, high-voltage MLCCs with high voltage resistance, high current, high power, ultra-high Q values, and low ESR are currently an important development direction.

4. Componentization

In order to achieve a higher volume-to-capacitance ratio, multi-core frame capacitors formed by welding multiple MLCCs are widely used in power supply filtering, DC/DC converters, switch circuits for energy input and output, discharge circuits (large capacity), high-temperature filtering, or decoupling.