Syfer has applied its product development and production expertise to delivering higher capacitance values for its 2kV capacitor range
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Advanced process technology has enabled Syfer Technology to increase massively the capacitance range of its 2kV series of surface mount capacitors. With applications in power supplies and modems as well as a broad spectrum of telecomms, military/aerospace and industrial equipment, these extended range devices will prove a boon to designers working to tight space and performance constraints.

Already renowned as a leading manufacturer of high voltage capacitors, Syfer has further pushed the boundaries by applying its product development and production expertise to delivering higher capacitance values for its 2kV capacitor range.

Starting with the smallest device in the range, the 1206 packaged part, with an X7R dielectric, now offers a capacitance range from 10pF to a remarkable 2.2nF, more than doubling the maximum capacitance value previously available.

Similarly, the popular 2225 footprint device has seen a capacitance range increase from 180pF to 33nF, up from a maximum of 15nF previously.

The primary advantages to designers of this significant performance improvement are reduced footprint and/or higher capacitance.

The breakthrough is the consequence of Syfer’s ongoing materials and process improvement activities.
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The company has developed and introduced a new process for the preparation of the ceramic used to manufacture the product.

This has resulted in a doubling of the effective breakdown voltage, allowing for this dramatic increase in the capacitance range of devices in the 2kV range.

John Shreeve, Syfer Technical Director commented: ‘It is rare to achieve such a huge increase in performance from process changes’.

‘In fact, in this case the effect was considerably more favourable than anticipated’.

Syfer’s 2kV range is available with the class Il stable X7R dielectric.

These devices are generally used for by-passing (decoupling), coupling, filtering, frequency discrimination, DC blocking and voltage transient suppression, typically delivering greater volumetric efficiency than Class l units, while maintaining stability within defined limits.

The extensive 2kV series of X7R surface mount capacitors ranges from 1206 to 8060 parts, with capacitance ranges from 1pF to 150nF.

All X7R types are also available with the Syfer FlexiCap flexible termination.

This proprietary flexible epoxy polymer termination material is applied to the device under the usual nickel barrier finish.

FlexiCap will accommodate a greater degree of board bending than conventional capacitors.

The benefit to the user is to facilitate a wider process window giving a greater safety margin and substantially reducing the most common cause of failures in multilayer capacitors - mechanical cracking.

Manufactured in Syfer’s Norwich, UK facility, the devices are already in volume production and available in any quantity.

Lead time is 6 weeks, price depending on volume.

The devices are fully RoHS compliant.

In addition, for high-reliability, RoHS-exempt applications, versions can be produced with tin-lead terminations.

Alcoa AFL Automotive and Maxwell Technologies have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the development of a cold start system for the commercial transportation market
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The companies will incorporate Maxwell’s Boostcap ultracapacitors with AFL’s power management system to develop an efficient engine starting system. ‘This phase will focus on the meshing of Alcoa’s and Maxwell’s technologies to produce the cold start system, with a goal of producing a system ready for testing and evaluation by truck OEMs by the end of the first quarter 2007′, said Allen Zwierzchowski, President, Worldwide Components AFL Automotive.

‘AFL and Maxwell have been interacting technically for some time, and we have identified cold starting for commercial trucks as a significant market opportunity that the companies have agreed to address through a formal collaboration’, said Dr Richard Balanson, Maxwell’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

‘AFL is a highly respected Tier 1 supplier to the automotive and commercial vehicle industries’.

‘Their electronic systems design expertise, manufacturing resources and strong worldwide contacts with auto and truck OEMs complement Maxwell’s capabilities as a leading provider of energy storage and power delivery solutions’, Balanson continued.
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Increasing environmental regulations preclude the ability of operators to allow their trucks to run all night.

More than 20 US states have enacted or are proposing regulations that prohibit running diesel truck engines overnight to power so-called ‘hotel loads’ - heating, cooling, entertainment and other driver comfort feature.

Running those loads on battery power all night can leave the batteries with insufficient power to start the vehicle in the morning, especially in cold weather.

‘With the AFL-Maxwell cold starting system, the ultracapacitor pack would provide what amounts to an onboard jump-start capability’, Zwierzchowski explained.

‘In addition, fleet owners incur significant costs due to vehicle downtime and jump-starting stranded trucks’.

‘Incorporating ultracapacitors to relieve batteries of demanding short-duration, high-current loads, such as cold starting, will improve overall system performance and reliability, extend battery life, and reduce battery maintenance and replacement costs’, Zwierzchowski said.

Farnell InOne reckons it is the first distributor in the industry to gain the British Standards Institute (BSI) RoHS Trusted Kitemark across all its European offices
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The Kitemark is respected across the world as a premier symbol of trust, integrity and quality. Kitemark status across Europe means customers can now purchase RoHS compliant products, endorsed by the Kitemark, from all European locations. Farnell InOne’s robust systems and unique market leading approach of using new part numbers, for all of its RoHS compliant products, ensures a reliable and consistent supply of RoHS compliant products from all of its European offices.

Neil Stanton, Scheme Manager, BSI Product Services commented: ‘By investing in the RoHS Trusted Kitemark across Europe, Farnell InOne is making a public commitment to best practice, which builds trust and confidence throughout the supply chain whilst also demonstrating that it has the capabilities to help its customers meet the requirements of the directive’.

Gary Nevison, Head of Product Market Strategy at Farnell InOne, adds: ‘This is a major step forward in demonstrating to all our customers that Farnell InOne’s market leading approach to RoHS provides a truly reliable service’.

‘Gaining the RoHS Trusted Kitemark for the whole of our European businesses is another industry first that we are proud to offer our customers’.

RS Components has won a three year contract worth Eur 15 million to supply Thales, an international electronics and systems group serving the defence, aerospace, security and services markets worldwide. Thales selected RS for a minimum of three years after a lengthy tender process involving two potential suppliers. RS was chosen to support several strategic purchasing objectives including reduced transactional costs, a reduction in the current vendor base and an increased product portfolio.

RS was commended for its ability to provide any catalogue item worldwide, its additional services that would support Thales’ competitiveness, and its view of market share.

The winning provider was required to maintain high quality and service levels, with an e-procurement service and extensive support for the RoHS Directive and, again, RS excelled.

Thales was attracted by the company’s recently introduced 100,000 item extended-range product roster and its comprehensive e-procurement system.

Feedback from Thales worldwide divisions revealed that RS had the most reliable delivery service, while the dedicated RoHS programme - where RS compliant products are clearly labelled - provided another incentive.

Thales Group’s Component Purchasing Manager said: ‘RS has proven itself to be the best in the field when it comes to services and reliability’.

‘Its range of products and e-procurement services will help us achieve our own objectives of improved competitiveness and growth’.

RS Global Account Manager, Paul Umpleby, said: ‘Thales has chosen RS because it can rely on us to supply any product from our extensive range anywhere in the world, while our e-procurement service saves time and cuts transaction costs, leading to a more efficient purchasing strategy’.

Farnell InOne is one of the first suppliers to migrate its complete catalogue from the OGCbuying.solutions Catalist service to its new emarketplace, Zanzibar, allowing public sector buyers direct access to the full Farnell InOne range. The transition of over 130,000 Farnell InOne products to the new system is the largest on the Zanzibar site and enables buyers direct access to the distributor’s range over the internet to transact end-to-end requisitions, orders and invoices. The Zanzibar website is a key part of the Government’s procurement strategy and is accessible by all public sector organisations in the UK, allowing government departments both choice and financial savings in their procurement efforts.

Mark Peers, Public Sector Business Manager of Farnell InOne comments: ‘As one of the first suppliers to make the transition from Catalist to Zanzibar, we can offer our public sector customers buying efficiency with both major procurement savings and a wealth of e-procurement benefits - from online transactions to e-invoicing’.

‘This means that the full Farnell InOne linecard - from tooling, to lighting, maintenance and repair equipment and our full RoHS compliant catalogue - is now available across the entire public sector’.

Kemet will be exhibiting its class leading ranges of surface mount capacitors in tantalum, ceramic and aluminium, and leaded capacitors in ceramic and tantalum at this year’s Electronica show in Munich. As a result of growth and recent acquisition, Kemet has significantly increased its presence in Europe. With its facility in Evora, Portugal, the company is now able to support the European market with locally manufactured product and has invested in additional sales and customer service resources to maintain its ‘easy to buy from’ leadership position.

Kemet’s ability to supply very high reliability components makes the European automotive market one of several key application areas for its products.

The company’s booth at the show will reflect this, with new Flex Robust and High Temperature capacitors that are well suited to the difficult operating environments found in vehicles, especially in under bonnet electronics modules.

Premier Farnell was presented with the Fastest Growing Pan European Distributor Award for 2006 at the recent Amphenol Info Com Pan European distribution conference in Barcelona. Amphenol, one of the largest manufacturers of interconnect products in the world, is broadening its product offering through Farnell InOne in Europe by adding over 450 new lines to both the new catalogue and the web. By the time the new Spring 2007 Farnell InOne catalogue is launched, customers will be able to benefit from over 650 new products, across a whole host of new products ranging from industrial multipole to signal and data.

Ron Vane, Director Europe of Amphenol Infocom, comments: ‘Farnell InOne’s superb logistics service enables us to give design engineers quick and easy access to the latest technology in high speed data connectors and a full range of multipin commodity products’.

‘Through their wide area coverage across Europe, and Asia Pacific, we are gaining a lot of new interesting opportunities’.

Nick Jones, Director of Marketing and Product Development at Amphenol comments: ‘To better develop the increasingly broad and diverse product spread, Amphenol has created more support and focus by restructuring’.

‘Each of the organisations now offer enhanced local support in all countries and this has resulted in an acceleration of new product additions to the Farnell InOne catalogue’.

Sam Pease, Supplier Account Manager at Farnell InOne adds: ‘We have built a very strong relationship with all Amphenol business units at an operational and corporate level, putting in place an extensive 18-month new product introduction plan, which we are confident will be of great benefit to customers’.

‘We are delighted to accept the award for Fastest Growing Pan European Distributor as a clear signal of our intention to truly deliver value for Amphenol’.

Kemet has extended its T409 (CWR09 style) and T429 (CWR29 style) series of established reliability, military standard qualified (MIL-PRF-55365/4 and /11), surface mount tantalum capacitor ranges to include 50V-rated parts. The company has also enhanced the T409, T429 and T419 (CWR19 style) series by offering them with three new termination options. Complementing the current solder-plated format, the new termination styles are gold plated, hot solder dipped, and solder fused.

This selection of finishes provides maximum flexibility to aerospace designers for who part compliance to MIL-PRF-55365 is a prerequisite.

The introduction of military standard qualified, 50V parts, covers the complete listing of CWR09 and CWR29 styles - a total of 22 new part numbers.

The new additions include case sizes A through to H with capacitance values of 0.1 to 4.7uF.

100% surge current testing and Weibull grading (B and C levels) is available as an option for all case sises.

Typical applications for the -55 to +125C rated parts include decoupling, bypass, filtering and R-C timing circuits.

Kemet’s T409, T419 and T429 capacitors are packaged in precision moulded, laser marked cases, and are shipped in tape and reel packaging (per EIA 481-1) ready for automated assembly processes.

TTI Europe is going live with a new website designed to deliver the most technical detail available as quickly as possible. Developed in ASP.NET 2.0, the latest Microsoft programming language which has been adopted by many large organisations, the new site gives users faster loading times of information and screens. The layout has been designed to be clearer and more visually appealing.

The site now includes a new ‘research centre’ which includes research reports from industry insiders and the latest Lead-free resources.

Information is more integrated, pulling together data from different vendors, and there more focus on specific product and market areas.

A specific section detailing RoHS and other relevant legislation is an important and vital new addition.

Explains Geoff Breed, TTI Europe’s Director of Supplier Marketing: ‘We have designed the site specifically so that our customers can access product and technical information from our suppliers - right down to providing individual downloadable datasheets’.

‘Few if any of our competitors provide the same level of detail’.

‘Also, we have created Microsites for each of our suppliers, which act as a portal for users to learn about new products and services’.

‘As TTI’s focus is on demand creation, new products are key to identifying new opportunities and wining new business, so these areas are very popular’.

‘One of the earliest descriptions of the Internet was ‘information superhighway”, concludes Breed.

Designed specifically for high performance and high reliability applications, Murata has introduced the Hi-Q MLC range of multilayer chip capacitors. The ERB series provides higher power and higher frequency over standard multilayer chip capacitors, and the MA series, primarily targeted at radio applications, extends the power range even further. The highest performing GQM series provides a high frequency, high power solution.

With applications in the satellite/cable TV, Bluetooth, automotive GPS, cellphone and basestation markets, the GQM series multilayer chip capacitors are available in a frequency range from 500MHz to 10GHz.

Built with a C0G dielectric and contained in miniature 0603 and 0805 packages, the devices have a voltage rating of 50 or 100V.

These high frequency, high Q components feature low power consumption and ultra low ESR, particularly at microwave, UHF and VHF frequencies.

Capacitance ranges vary from 0.1 to 100pF.

The ERB series devices are available in 0603, 0805 or 1210 packages, with voltage ratings from 50V to 500V.

Also built using the C0G dielectric, these high frequency (1MHz to 1GHz), High Q capacitors are offered in capacitances ranging from 0.5 to 1000pF.

The low power consumption ERB series is best suited to telecomms applications, but for very high frequency use, the GQM series delivers superior performance.

Described as high power RF capacitors, the MA series is available in both leaded and chip package configurations with a choice of C0G or P90 dielectrics.

Featuring very high self resonant frequencies, the devices provide low capacitance (from 0.1pF) and tight tolerances.

The MA series are particularly suited to nonmagnetic applications such as RF coils and amplifiers incorporated into sensitive equipment such as those designed for medical and military systems.

These parts are also designed to operate in harsh environments.

Murata’s Hi-Q MLC range is priced competitively, providing excellent value for performance.

All parts are RoHS compliant and already in volume production on 8 to 12 week leadtimes.

Samples and designer kits for design-in and evaluation purposes are readily available.

The parts are manufactured in Japan and take advantage of Murata’s advanced materials research, using copper (GQM series) or palladium electrodes, and sophisticated construction techniques.