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.

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.

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. 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.

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. 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’.

The Distributors’ and Manufacturers’ Association of Semiconductor Specialists (DMASS), a European not-for-profit organisation, has appointed a new Chairperson - Gary Nevison, Head of Product Market Strategy EAP at Farnell InOne, the award-winning international distributor of electronic and industrial components. Nevison, with almost 30 years experience in the industry and a leading commentator on the European RoHS and WEEE Directives, will chair DMASS for the next year. Having represented Farnell InOne at DMASS for the past three years, Nevison will be involved in the association’s monitoring and analysis of semiconductor distribution market data across Europe, and provide comment on the industry.

Nevison also sits on the board of Electronics Yorkshire, the organisation set up to assist the region’s electronics industry, and is the elected Chairperson of the RoHS team at AFDEC (Association of Franchised Distributors of Electronic Components).

DMASS, set up in 1989, provides its members with a reliable statistical tool to evaluate their relative mass-market performance.

As Europe’s foremost semiconductor reporting association, DMASS includes representatives from both the distribution and manufacturing sectors.

The association’s analysis is an invaluable tool for product managers in these sectors as it examines growth in distribution by product category, as well as by country.

Nevison comments: ‘With such detailed information, product managers are able to see data by product groups such as microcontrollers, memories, analogue and discrete components, as well as by country’.

‘The view that DMASS provides is highly valuable to both distributors and manufacturers as it is the only Europe-wide industry body that collates detailed semiconductor market data on a quarterly basis’.

Charcroft Electronics has been appointed as special distribution partner by electronic component and connector manufacturer Wearnes Cambion. The agreement is part of Wearnes Cambion’s strategy for consolidating sales of its existing inductive and interconnect products and for launching new ranges, which include RF connectors and transponders. All products comply with the RoHS Directive, although Wearnes Cambion and Charcroft will continue to supply Pb-inclusive parts for customers in market areas which are exempt from the RoHS regulations.

Martin Stoneman, Sales and Marketing Manager of Wearnes Cambion commented: ‘Although we will continue to support our existing distributors we recognised the need for a special distribution partner capable of providing the particular expertise and service required by OEMs and contractors of medical, instrumentation, mil-aerospace, automotive and other harsh or life-critical products’.

Edmund Coady, Sales Director of Charcroft, added: ‘The special distributor status awarded by Wearnes Cambion recognises Charcroft’s willingness to provide even low-volume customers with the high levels of engineering support required to solve complex design issues with professional-grade and custom inductive and interconnect products’.

Epcos has signed a franchise distribution agreement with Arrow Electronics under which Arrow will carry the company’s comprehensive range of passive component products throughout the UK and the Republic of Ireland. The new agreement expands the strategic and long-term partnership that the two companies have already established in central and southern Europe, the Nordic countries and the USA. Under the terms of the new agreement, Arrow, the world’s largest passive component distributor, will stock a full Epcos package of leading passive components.

Epcos is the world market leader in a raft of passive components including SAW components, surge arresters, thermistors, varistors and power capacitors.

In Europe Epcos is market leader in aluminium electrolytic capacitors, EMC components, ferrites, film capacitors, tantalum chip capacitors and chokes.

Arrow will also provide comprehensive technical and design-in support for these products, a fact underlined by the addition of four new recruits to the company’s UK technical PEMCO (passive, electromechanical and connector) team.

Discussing the expansion of the agreement with Arrow, Keith Rogers, the Epcos UK Distribution Manager, comments: ‘With Epcos as a design leader in passive components, this agreement is the logical extension of our already successful partnership with Arrow’.

‘Our jointly applied resource will further enhance the technical support and expertise available to our customers locally assisting them in securing future business for and in the UK’.

‘Welcome on board Arrow’.

Andrew Plaistow, Arrow’s PEMCO Sales Manager for the UK and Ireland adds: ‘Passive components are a key element of Arrow’s European business, and Epcos is already our largest passives supplier in the Nordic region’.

‘The extension of the relationship, plus the expansion of our UK technical resource, is further evidence of Arrow’s commitment to passive technologies, and strengthens our product offering for key market sectors including telecomms, automotive, consumer and industrial electronics’.

Young Electronics has a new range of chip capacitors that employs a novel capacitor technology to produce devices that have 65% lower ESR characteristics than conventional chip tantalum devices.

The Nippon Chemi-Con PTB series from world leading capacitor manufacturer, is ideally suited to DC/DC convertor, voltage regulator and decoupling applications The PTB is a lead-free device offering designers a very wide range of capacitances from 47 to 1000uF in voltage ratings from 2.5 to 10V DC.

The new technology has a very wide operating temperature range between -55 and +105C, and the PTB’s ability to withstand peak temperatures of 230-250C for periods up to 40s makes it suitable for use with reflow soldering.

Easby Electronics is offering a range of low-cost surface mount capacitor and resistor array products from Yageo, an expanding global supplier to the telecommunications, automotive, computing and consumer multimedia industries. Arrays offer application benefits as well as savings in terms of board space and production time. The Yageo CA capacitor chip arrays each contain four capacitors and are available with a choice of dielectric in two standard packages, 0612, with a 3.2 x 1.6mm footprint, and 0508, with a footprint of 2 x 1.25mm.

Available from Easby, the compact packages provide a saving of over 50% on the board space occupied by equivalent discrete components, at the same time typically offering improved frequency characteristics.

With NPO dielectric, the larger parts are available in a series from 10pF up to 1nF 50V, whereas the smaller series goes from 15 to 270pF 50V.

Arrays with X7R dielectric are available in both sizes offering values in a range between 10 and 100nF at 16, 25 and 50V.

Y5V dielectric arrays are available from 10nF to 100nF 25V in the larger case size.

The Yageo YC array chip resistors, also available from Easby, offer a wide choice of resistor networks and values in convex-type packages.

For example, the YC122 Series is a two-resistor/4-pin array, the YC124 and YC164 are four-resistor/8-pin arrays, the YC324 has eight resistors/4 pins and the YC248 has eight resistors/16 pins.

Yageo also offers concave-type TC Series resistor arrays.

Like the capacitor arrays, the resistor arrays are supplied on tape and reel.

NIC Components Europe has a new range of film chip capacitors. Devices in the NSHC series have a stacked metallised polypropylene sulphide (PPS) film construction that helps them achieve stable performance in the most demanding applications. The devices provide an ideal replacement for less robust Class II multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs).

Parts are available in standard EIA 0603, 0805, 1206, 1210, 1913 and 2416 case sizes.

Equipment designers can choose from a wide range of parts with capacitance values that range from 100pF to 0.22uF and voltage ratings of either 16 or 50V DC.

In addition to their inherent stability over time, voltage and temperature, the NSHC series has a very high resistance to moisture and cracking.

An operating temperature range of -55 to +125C further underlines the suitability of the NSHC series for use in the most difficult applications and environments.

The NSHC series can be specified with optional lead-free terminations and is supplied in tape and reel packaging.

A new programme offers shipment within 14 days of receipt a customer purchase order for custom-configured multicell energy storage and power delivery solutions.

Maxwell Technologies has unveiled a new Quick-Turn Boostcap ultracapacitor module programme that offers shipment within 14 days of receipt a customer purchase order for custom-configured multicell energy storage and power delivery solutions for systems requiring up to 540V. Dr Richard Balanson, Maxwell’s president and Chief Executive Officer, said that the Quick-Turn programme leverages standard modular building blocks and proprietary balancing, monitoring and thermal transfer technologies to establish a new industry standard for flexibility and responsiveness to customer requirements. ‘Global demand for ultracapacitor-based solutions is real and growing, and we continue to move aggressively to capitalise on Maxwell’s technology leadership to become the supplier of choice for transportation and industrial manufacturers’, Balanson said.

‘By eliminating the complexity and long lead times that system designers frequently encounter when they want to evaluate and prototype ultracapacitors solutions, we are facilitating and accelerating development of new applications that have the potential to drive high volumes in the years ahead’.

Michael Everett, Maxwell’s Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, said that custom Quick Turn modules based on the BCAP 2600 2600F energy and power cells are immediately available, and that additional options based on the entire MC family of products, ranging from 650 to 3000F will be phased in, beginning in the third quarter.

Quick-Turn module pricing will be quoted on a fixed fee basis for quantities of one to five units.

Maxwell also offers a complete line of standard, 15 to 48V multicell packs and modules based on the company’s Power- and Energy-type ultracapacitor cells.

Both standard and Quick Turn modules are encased in rugged, splash-proof aluminium chassis and include internal cell balancing that give designers ‘plug and play’ solutions, plus module-to-module balancing that makes them versatile building blocks for systems with higher voltage requirements.

All Boostcap cells with a capacitance of 650F or greater operate at 2.7V, enabling them to store more energy and deliver more power per unit volume than any other commercially available ultracapacitor products.

‘All of these products meet or exceed demanding transportation and industrial application requirements for both watt-hours of energy storage and watts of power delivery per kilogram and will perform reliably for more than one million discharge-recharge cycles’, Everett said.

‘The proprietary architecture and material science on which Boostcap products are based also significantly reduce manufacturing cost, positioning Maxwell to compete favourably with batteries and other energy storage technologies’.

Boostcap ultracapacitors deliver up to 10 times the power and longevity of batteries, require no maintenance and operate reliably in extreme temperatures.

In transportation applications, they efficiently recapture energy from braking for reuse in hybrid drive trains, reducing fuel consumption and emissions.

They also provide compact, lightweight ‘life-of-the-vehicle’ solutions to stabilise automotive power networks and power new, all-electric subsystems, such as drive-by-wire steering.

In mission critical industrial applications, where backup power is critical for continued operation or a soft shutdown in the event of power interruptions, they provide reliable, cost-effective, maintenance-free energy storage.

In wind turbine blade pitch and braking systems and other industrial applications, they provide a simple, solid state, highly reliable, solution to buffer short-term mismatches between the power available and the power required.