High-voltage MLCs aim for commercial success

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team May 25, 2004

A new commercial-grade high-voltage ceramic surface mount capacitor product line is designed for applications demanding reliability at high voltages.

A new commercial-grade high-voltage ceramic surface mount capacitor product line is designed for applications demanding reliability at high voltages.

Applications for the new high-voltage MLCs include: high-voltage lamp circuits (HID, video projectors); ballast circuits for LCD displays and other fluorescent lighting; laser light source circuits; RF antenna transmitter circuits; medical (X-ray, MRI etc); snubber circuits; high-voltage tank circuits/resonator circuits; high-voltage supply filter circuits; high-voltage coupling/DC blocking circuits; and input protection for LAN/telecomms products.

Commenting on the launch, Kemet's Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey A Graves said: "This product release continues Kemet's strategy to broaden our high-performance solutions to customers who value Kemet's product quality, on-time delivery, device performance, and competitive pricing".

Kemet's high-voltage surface-mount ceramic capacitors use a "cascading" or "floating" internal electrode design, which effectively divides the voltage across the device into smaller voltages that each internal section of the capacitor can easily accommodate, thereby enabling high voltage rating capability.

These ceramic capacitors include rated voltages from 500 to 3000V in COG and X7R dielectrics, and are available EIA case sizes range from 0805 to 2225 with capacitance values from 1pF to 0.22uF.

The commercial-grade high-voltage ceramic capacitors have pure tin (Sn) plated terminations for good solderability and are RoHS compliant.