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Image of KEMET Ceramic Capacitor Basics Pt 2 - Factors influencing IR

From Part one of the Ceramic Capacitor Basics Product Training Module, the customer learned that MLCCs are constructed using alternating layers of ceramic dielectric with metal electrodes. Each layer represents a single capacitor and adding additional layers adds more capacitance to the MLCC since they are in parallel. Capacitance is calculated from the MLCC Capacitance Equation highlighted in yellow. By looking at the parameters in the equation, increasing the dielectric constant (K), area of the electrodes (A), or the number of electrodes (n), will increase the capacitance. Also, since capacitance is inversely proportional to the ceramic thickness (d), decreasing the ceramic thickness will also result in an increase in capacitance. All these changes have an opposite effect on insulation resistance. By increasing the overlap area and number of electrodes and decreasing the ceramic thickness, this will decrease the total insulation resistance of the MLCC. Therefore, one can conclude that higher capacitance MLCCs of the same dielectric material and voltage rating will have lower insulation resistance. In addition, the material properties and temperature of the dielectric will also impact the insulation resistance of the MLCC.

PTM Published on: 2021-12-03