A ceramic capacitor is regarded as the fixed value capacitor where the dielectric is a ceramic material. It is made up of alternating 2 or more layers of ceramic as well as a layer of metal that behaves like an electrode. The piece of the ceramic material characterizes electrical conduct and consequently applications. Ceramic capacitors can be categorized into 2 application classes:

• Class 1 Ceramic Capacitors – This type of ceramic capacitors provide low losses and high stability for resonant circuit applications.
• Class 2 Ceramic Capacitors – It provides high volumetric efficiency for coupling, by-pass, and buffer applications.

Ceramic capacitors mostly the Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors - MLCC are one of that electrical equipment that is the most used ones. They are available in different sizes and shapes and are utilized in capacitors for EMI / RFI suppression, power capacitors for transmitters and as feed-through capacitors.

MLCC

An MLCC or Multi-Layered Ceramic Capacitors comes with several separate capacitors that are grouped together in parallel and are contacted using the terminal surface. The materials used for making MLCC chips are a mixture of ferroelectric or paraelectric (finely ground granules) with some precisely decided added substances. Both of them are mixed together to form a homogeneous mixture. The size of the powder as well as the composition of the mixture (small as 10nm) shows the expertise of the manufacturer.

A thin foil of ceramic is cast from a suspension of the powder with an appropriate binder. This ceramic foil is then rolled up for transport. It is then unrolled. After this, they are divided into sheets of equal size which are screen printed using a paste of metal. Now, these sheets are our electrodes. These sheets are grouped together in layers and pressure is applied which can be solidified on the application of pressure in an automated process. Along with the relative permittivity, the number and size of the layers help in deciding the value of capacitance. The electrodes are grouped in an alternate arrangement somewhat balanced from the abutting layers with the goal that they each can later be associated on the offset side, one right, one left. The stack that is layered is cut into small individual components. High mechanical exactness is required.

After the cutting process is over, the binder is worn out of the stack. This is trailed by sintering at temperatures somewhere in the range of 1,200 and 1,450 °C creating the last, essentially crystalline, structure. The burning process then makes up the needed dielectric properties. Cleaning and metallization are succeeded in the burning process. With the help of the metallization process, the inner and the ends electrodes get connected in parallel and the terminal is provided to the capacitor. At last, a 100% estimating of the electrical qualities will be finished.

This was all we have regarding MLCC. Hope you liked going through it. Brands that manufacture them are Kemet, AVX and TDK. Make sure to follow them using the links as provided. Thanks for reading.

View all our Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors MLCC – Leaded