A Kind of Capacitor Called MLCC

choi

Takashi Mochizuki, Without This Tiny Part, Your Phone Won't Work. Speck-sized component called MLCCs power everything from smartphones to cars. And now there is a global shortage of them.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/can ... -a-speck-1530282882

Quote:

"Consumers never see one of these tiny components, but their smartphones have hundreds of them and their cars have thousands. The part, which costs less than a penny apiece, helps control the flow of electricity and stores power for semiconductors, a function without which virtually no electronic device could work.

"A typical gasoline-powered car may require only a few thousand, but an electric car might need 10,000, say industry experts.

"Only a handful of makers, mostly Asian, produce the component. The top three companies— Murata Manufacturing Co, Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. and Taiyo Yuden Co. —own 60% of the market, according to research firm Paumanok Publications.

"Companies compare making an MLCC to making a piece of pottery. A material called barium titanate is mixed with a variety of organic solvents, then poured flat, with layers piled one on another like a tiny layered pastry. The product is then fired in a tunnel furnace.  Each maker has its own recipe—how much of which solvents to use, how long to mix the materials, how to set the furnace—and most of that is secret.  'It's impossible to steal the complete formula by studying our product because some materials get evaporated during the firing process,' says Katsuya SASE 佐瀬 克也 [consult (f) for dictionary; ya is Chinese pronunciation of kanji 也], head of electronic components at Tokyo-based Taiyo Yuden.  In recent years, companies have learned to make the ceramic bits ever smaller, helping smartphones get thinner. The smallest MLCC is less than a quarter of a millimeter on each side, a barely visible speck.

" 'Demand during the internet bubble around 2000 was mostly from personal computers and cellphones, but what we have today is a much wider range of devices, such as smartphones, cars, smart devices, data centers and equipment for telecommunication base stations,' said Shōichi TOSAKA 登坂 正一, Taiyo Yuden's chief executive, in May.

Note:
(a) Takashi MOCHIZUKI  望月 崇 (He is based in Tokyo.)
(i) Mochizuki is a Japanese surname.
(ii) In Japanese language, 望月 (with the same pronunciation) is a noun that means full moon on the 15th of each lunar month, especially that of the eighth lunar month.
(iii) The noun mochizuki is made up of two words: mochi 餅 (which IS 年糕 in Chinese) and tsuki 月 (both of Japanese pronunciations). I have no idea why the combination of these two words changes the kanji to 望月.)

(b) About Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor (MLCC).

Technical Report Evolving Capacitors - Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors Part 1 Trend (part 1 of 2). Murata Manufacturing, Nov 28, 2013
https://www.murata.com/en-us/pro ... 1/28/en-20131128-p1
("The size of the multilayer ceramic capacitor market is presently the largest among the markets for various types of capacitors, namely aluminum electrolytic capacitors, tantalum electrolytic capacitors, and film capacitors. * * * It was a US company that first came up with the idea of a multilayer ceramic capacitor. In the midst of the Apollo [space] program, which was launched in 1961, a multilayer ceramic capacitor was invented to meet the need for a compact, high-capacitance capacitor. The new capacitor was designed to have the electrodes formed in a number of laminated dielectric layers so that it has a high capacitance in a small size (fig 1).  Murata Manufacturing Co, Ltd. introduced this technology ahead of others and put the first product on the market in 1965. * * * The product used titanium oxide (TiO2) as the dielectric material. * * * The history of multilayer ceramic capacitors since then can be described as the 'history of size reduction and capacitance enhancement.' * * * Murata used titanium oxide as the dielectric material during the initial phase after product release, but introduced barium titanate (BaTiO3) at a relatively early stage. Since then, the relative dielectric constant has been continuously increasing as a result of improvements made to the [latter] material")

Try as I may, I fail to find out what the American company was. But I do learn that each MLCC is composed more than 100 layers, alternating between dielectric and metal.
(c) "SMBC Nikko Securities analyst Ryōsuke KATSURA 桂 竜輔"

Nikkō 日興 was Japan's third largest brokerage when acquired in 2009 by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation 株式会社三井住友銀行 (SMBC; a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group) to become SMBC Nikkō Securities Inc SMBC日興証券株式会社. en.wikipedia.org for Nikkō.
(d) Murata Manufacturing Co, Ltd 株式会社村田製作所, based in Kyoto, was founded in 1944 by Akira MURATA 村田 昭.
(e) Taiyō Yūden Co, Ltd 太陽誘電株式会社, based in Tokyo, was founded by researcher Hikohachi SATŌ 佐藤 彦八 in 1950.
(f) Japanese-English dictionary:
* katsu 勝つ(P[rincipal]); 克つ; 贏つ 【かつ】 (v): "to win"
* yūden 誘電 (n): "【ゆうでん】 (n): "dielectric" (Ceramic is an dielectric.)