Kemet Electronics’s new hybrid aluminum polymer capacitor series combines conductive polymer and liquid electrolytes, “resulting in electrical performance appropriate for automotive and industrial applications,” Electronics Weekly explained.

The series include A780, PHA225, and PHH225. “These AEC-Q200 qualified capacitors offer a combination of conductive polymer technology and liquid electrolytic material in a hybrid design ,” EW noted.

The growing vehicle electrification product market, “driven in part by a rising need for 48V architecture in mild hybrid electric vehicles (MHEV)” motivated this development.

The A780 series is a surface mount (V-Chip) hybrid aluminum polymer capacitor, a first for Kemet. Housed in a cylindrical aluminum can, the liquid aluminum electrolyte and solid polymer materials when combined “have greater advantages such as a higher ripple current, lower equivalent series resistance (ESR), lower leakage current, and better self-healing capability than standard solid polymer aluminum capacitors with no liquid electrolyte,” Kemet claims.

The capacitors series can withstand vibrations up to 30g, and thus meet the stringent design requirements for automotive powertrain and industrial applications, including engine control units, DC/DC converters, 48V inverters for MHEV, switched-mode power supply (SMPS) and computer voltage regulator modules (VRM).

The PHA225 and PHH225 advances hybrid aluminum polymer capacitor technology, with an axial and radial crown design, they have the same combination of highly conductive polymer and liquid electrolytic material as the A780 series.

Able to withstand temperatures up to 140°C, this capacitor series can provide extremely high ripple current capability and self-healing performance. The hybrid construction of polymer and liquid electrolytics extends its operating lifetime and provides extremely low and stable ESR across all temperature ranges.

The PHA/PHH 225 capacitor has a small size and high ripple current per unit volume, which is valuable when designing-in for automotive and industrial technologies, such as 48V automotive inverters. Engineers can reduce the number of required components and still maintain high ripple current performance by using smaller, high power density hybrid aluminum capacitors in parallel for an existing 48V automotive inverter design. 

The hybris PHA225 and PHH225 series can be used for designing in high power automotive applications, including DC-Link for 48V inverters, cooling fans, water pumps, power steering, and braking and injection systems.

“The design of the A780, PHA225, and PHH225 series incorporates KEMET’s proprietary hybrid polymer technology and electrolyte material,” said Rui Monteiro, KEMET Director of Aluminum Electrolytic Technology told EW. “These advancements in our polymer and aluminum offering supports the growing automotive electrification trend and provides design engineers with reliable solutions for decoupling, smoothing, filtering, and power conversion.”