Electronic devices power our world and allow us to communicate. In all applications requiring signal integrity and accurate power amplification, blocking capacitors are used to provide clean waveforms and correctly amplified voltages.

From EVs and industrial automation to renewable energy and smart logistics, power systems are becoming increasingly complex. As a result, they’re increasingly dependent on reliable, high-speed energy storage too. Enter supercapacitors, a critical technology bridging the gap between traditional batteries and real-time power demands.  

As engineers embed receivers for Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), like GPS and Galileo, into systems ranging from autonomous vehicles to precision agriculture, the RF environment is becoming more crowded, and it’s more difficult to maintain signal integrity.  

As discussed in the first post in our safety capacitor series, safety capacitors are designed to help safeguard users and equipment from electrical hazards, even in the event of failure. When selecting a safety capacitor for your application, you typically have two choices in dielectric material – ceramic and film. To select the right technology for your application, it is important to both understand your requirements and the differences between what each material has to offer.

Improving overall system performance starts with foundational component selections. Growing demand for high-energy, reliable and compact converters in electric vehicles (EVs) and other industrial and energy applications is encouraging development in components likemultilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs). MLCCs are known for their excellent electrical properties, reliability, and compact size; however, the demands they face only continue to grow.

Pharmaceutical manufacturing is becoming increasingly reliant on robotics and automation. From precise dispensing and high-speed sorting to kit assembly and sterile packaging, today’s automation tasks demand advanced motor and drive technology to keep pace with complex, high-reliability environments. 

Unplanned power interruptions and shutdowns pose serious risks for industrial facilities. Even a few seconds of lost control can result in equipment damage, safety hazards, or production losses. Fail-safe systems are among the key risk mitigation techniques used in high-stakes industrial environments.  

In our prior blog, What Are Safety Capacitors, we provided an overview safety capacitor functionality and how these passive components play a crucial role filtering EMI in a circuit. Now, we will dive deeper into the functions of safety capacitors and how to select the capacitor that will meet all your needs by exploring the different classes and subclasses for these components. 

With deep expertise in advanced miniaturization, Knowles delivers capabilities including micro electromagnetic sensor coiling, micro molding, micro stamping, precision machining, micro-electronics integration, and compact high-density assemblies. Our engineering and manufacturing teams collaborate early in the development cycle to ensure designs are optimized for performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency. 

Multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) are made up of two materials—ceramic dielectric material and metal electrode material. Layering metal electrodes and ceramic dielectrics (Figure 1.) achieves voltages that are capable of producing high electric fields that ultimately allow MLCCs to regulate current flow and prevent electromagnetic interference between components. There are two common electrodes used in MLCCs: precious metal electrodes (PMEs), containing palladium silver, and base metal electrodes (BMEs), containing nickel or copper. Each electrode type holds a spot in the capacitor world for a reason.