Multilayer ceramic capacitors for pulsed power, high temperature applications

The performance of the multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLC) in high frequency power applications has improved significantly over the last years. One of the possible applications of MLC capacitors is the automotive industry where repetitive discharging of capacitors is required. A 0.25‐μF capacitor using NPO dielectric subjected to repetitive discharging with the rate of 700 pulses per second, magnitude of 600‐V and 195‐A peak currents showed no degradation in performance at 298 K or 398 K even after 1 billion discharge cycles. Less than a 5‐K temperature rise was observed under these conditions. The most exciting, newly emerging utilization for MLC capacitors, however, might be the high temperature application (up to 473 K for underhood utilization), where ceramic capacitors with higher volumetric efficiency as compared to glass or polymer type capacitors prove very superior. Moreover ceramic capacitors, which next to glass capacitors exhibit the greatest radiation resistance among all insulating materials (Hanks and Hamman 1971), might also be best suited in the future for high temperature operation in space environment. The pulsed power performance of the 0.25‐μF NPO capacitor was evaluated under repetitive discharge conditions (200 V, 700 pps) at high temperature, 473 K, and the results are presented in this paper.