Some Aspects of Multilayer Ceramic Chip Capacitors for Hybrid Circuits

It is shown that both European and American standardization committees specify the dimensions in the same grid and that there is no standardization of the thickness in relation to the capacitance. Of the ceramic dielectrics, special attention is paid to the instability of capacitance and losses of type II materials due to temperature and voltage treatment. The conductivity of the inner electrodes determines the losses at 1 MHz in type I dielectrics. It is shown that the economically interesting partial replacement of Pd by Ag can cause an increase in the losses: other substitute metals seem more promising. The last aspect discussed is the end terminations of the capacitors. In the case of silver/palladium end terminations the Ag/Pd ratio should be smaller than two.