Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. has extended its lead in the multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) market for automotive applications with the release of the LLC Series. Specifically, the new components, the first to have 0.18mm profile package, feature a reversed termination for low ESL. Also, the footprint is just 0.5×1.0mm for 1µF capacitance, making the parts the smallest in the market.

The LLC Series uses Murata’s proprietary thin-layer forming and high-precision lamination technology. Also, it adopts advanced material atomization and homogenization techniques, achieving about 20% reduction in component height compared with existing parts. This opens the potential to more-easily fit the capacitors on the back side of circuit boards, even amongst solder ball terminations. Thus, it can locate the parts in optimum positions for decoupling of processor power rails, close to the die. This, in turn, allows fewer capacitors to be used, saving cost, and increasing system reliability.

Along with their low ESR, the reduction in ESL reduces the high-frequency impedance of the capacitors. This improves circuit performance to meet the requirements of modern, low-voltage, compute-intensive applications such as automotive advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS).

The automotive-grade LLC Series complies with AEC-Q200 requirements. Specifically, it passed the 1000 temperature cycle test and temperature/humidity endurance test of 85°C at 80 to 85% humidity for 1000 hours.