Ceramic capacitor

A ceramic capacitor is a fixed-value capacitor where the ceramic material acts as the dielectric. It is constructed of two or more alternating layers of ceramic and a metal layer acting as the electrodes. The composition of the ceramic material defines the electrical behavior and therefore applications. Ceramic capacitors are divided into two application classes: Class 1 ceramic capacitors offer high stability and low losses for resonant circuit applications. Class 2 ceramic capacitors offer high volumetric efficiency for buffer, by-pass, and coupling applications. Ceramic capacitors, especially multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs), are the most produced and used capacitors in electronic equipment that incorporate approximately one trillion (1012) pieces per year. Ceramic capacitors of special shapes and styles are used as capacitors for RFI/EMI suppression, as feed-through capacitors and in larger dimensions as power capacitors for transmitters. Since the beginning of the study of electricity non-conductive materials such as glass, porcelain, paper and mica have been used as insulators. These materials some decades later were also well-suited for further use as the dielectric for the first capacitors. Even in the early years of Marconi's wireless transmitting apparatus, porcelain capacitors were used for high voltage and high frequency application in the transmitters. On the receiver side, the smaller mica capacitors were used for resonant circuits. Mica dielectric capacitors were invented in 1909 by William Dubilier. Prior to World War II, mica was the most common dielectric for capacitors in the United States. Mica is a natural material and not available in unlimited quantities. So in the mid-1920s the deficiency of mica in Germany and the experience in porcelain—a special class of ceramic—led in Germany to the first capacitors using ceramic as dielectric, founding a new family of ceramic capacitors.