Multilayer Ceramic Electrode Structure for Corner Thickness Reliability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing multilayer ceramic components face challenges in maintaining sufficient thickness of base layers at corner portions, leading to discontinuous portions and potential reliability issues, while increasing the size of the multilayer body to enhance capacitance results in insufficient capacitance.
Innovation Solution
The multilayer ceramic component design includes end and peripheral surface electrode layers with specific material compositions and configurations, ensuring adequate thickness at corner portions by overlapping peripheral and end surface electrode layers, thereby enhancing moisture resistance and suppressing plating solution penetration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If the thickness of the multilayer body is increased to enhance capacitance, then the capacitance increases, but the thickness of the base layer at corner portions becomes insufficient leading to discontinuous portions and reliability issues
Solution Approach 1:
The external electrode is divided into two distinct layers: an end surface electrode layer and a peripheral surface electrode layer. This segmentation allows each layer to be optimized independently - the end surface electrode layer provides thickness at corner portions for reliability, while the peripheral surface electrode layer extends along the peripheral surfaces to maintain capacitance without compromising the base layer thickness at corners
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the external electrode are given different properties through the two-layer structure. The end surface electrode layer has higher thickness at corner portions to ensure reliability and suppress plating solution penetration, while the peripheral surface electrode layer extends along the peripheral surfaces to maintain overall capacitance. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction between overall capacitance and local thickness requirements
2Reliability
If the base layer thickness at corner portions is increased to ensure moisture resistance and suppress plating solution penetration, then reliability improves, but the overall size of the multilayer body must be increased which reduces capacitance efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The electrode structure transitions from a single-layer planar configuration to a two-layer three-dimensional configuration. The peripheral surface electrode layer extends along the peripheral surfaces in addition to the end surface coverage, utilizing the vertical dimension to provide both corner portion thickness for reliability and extended surface area for capacitance without increasing the horizontal footprint of the multilayer body
Data Source
AI summary
A multilayer ceramic electronic component includes a multilayer body having a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape and including a plurality of internal electrode layers and a plurality of dielectric layers laminated on each other, the plurality of internal electrode layers being led out to a pair of end surfaces facing each other, a pair of end surface electrode layers covering the pair of end surfaces and extending from the pair of end surfaces to a pair of corner portions between the pair of end surfaces and four surfaces other than the pair of end surfaces among six surfaces of the multilayer body, and a peripheral surface electrode layer extending from end portions, in the substantially perpendicular direction, of the four surfaces other than the pair of end surfaces among the six surfaces of the multilayer body to the corner portions and covering the end surface electrode layers at the corner portions.