The most common defect for ceramic capacitors is mechanical stress (flex/bending) cracks. This failure occurs due to excessive stress induced during assembly, final test, or customer use. When the crack occurs, the crack signature is always a 45 degree crack from the bottom termination through the ceramic going towards the end of the capacitor. If the crack crosses opposing internal electrodes the result is an electrical short. In some applications, this is a catastrophic failure leading to a thermal event. When possible, Samsung applies an open mode construction which reduces the internal electrode overlap area. In this configuration, the bending crack will not cross opposing electrodes and will fail open rather than short.