Miniaturized and large-capacity ceramic capacitors

At present, the market size of multilayer ceramic capacitors is the largest among various types of capacitors such as aluminum electrolytic capacitors, tantalum electrolytic capacitors and film capacitors. Earlier data showed that domestic shipments in Japan were 627.8 billion in 2008, and domestic shipments in Japan reached 3,059 yen (from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). The number of aluminum electrolytic capacitors in the second place in Japan was 18.2 billion, and the domestic shipment amount was 1,743 yen. The gap is quite huge. In 2012, the number of multilayer ceramic capacitors increased to 765.5 billion, while the number of aluminum electrolytic capacitors decreased to 10.9 billion. The gap is constantly expanding.

Ceramic capacitors are realized by multiple layers of dielectric layers and internal electrodes. Although multilayer ceramic capacitors now occupy the top position in the capacitor market, it is difficult to be accepted by the market at the beginning of the product launch. It is American companies that conceived the idea of multilayer ceramic capacitors. During the advancement of the Apollo program that began in 1961, small capacitors with large capacitance emerged as needed. Capacitors filled with large capacitance in a small volume are realized by forming electrodes on a thin dielectric and performing a plurality of superpositions.

The history of multilayer ceramic capacitors can be said in a word, "the history of miniaturization and large capacity." Generally, the capacitance C of the capacitor can be expressed by. In this expression, ε is a dielectric constant, and S is an electrode area and a d-electrode distance (dielectric thickness). That is, in a certain volume, to increase the capacitance, only a material with a high ε or a thinned dielectric can be used.