Empower Semiconductor has announced it is increasing production of its E-CAP silicon capacitor technology. E-CAP is a vastly superior performing capacitor, far exceeding the semiconductor industry’s previously leading Multi-Layer Ceramic Capacitors (MLCC), which is amidst another significant supply chain shortage. The MLCC market was estimated at $8.4B in 2018.

MLCC’s are space limiting, inefficient, unreliable, and low performing when compared to E-CAP. Empower Semiconductor has made the most significant advancement for capacitors in decades as E-CAP enables new possibilities for today’s applications due to the incredible size reduction, performance increase, and improved reliability. MLCC’s are also prone to material shortages and pricing volatility as witnessed most recently. The E-CAP silicon capacitor product platform can alleviate supply shortages with the added performance and reliability benefits.

“Since we launched E-CAP in late 2020 there has been unprecedented demand for our technology by industry leaders in mobile and data center products. More recently we have received increased demand due to the supply shortage of MLCC products” said Steve Shultis, Senior Vice President WW Sales and Marketing at Empower Semiconductor. “We knew our performance was winning and the added benefit of our supply chain has created a tremendous surge in demand for E-CAP.”

E-CAP can be an ideal replacement of MLCC products as a power supply bypass capacitor in low voltage DC/DC voltage regulators and in-package for SoC’s and Processors. Empower Semiconductor’s silicon capacitor technology features superior stability with no DC or AC bias de-rating, no temperature de-rating, and no significant effects of aging. Combined with the ultra-low ESL (<15pH), E-CAP provides a highly simplified and reliable solution to the system designer. This highly differentiated high-performance technology is available in configurations up to 8.4 microfarad for operating voltages under 5V. Height limited applications are addressed with the capability of less than 100µm in thickness.

News source: https://www.powerelectronicsnews.com/mlcc-world-wide-shortages-drive-increased-demand-for-e-cap-capacitor-technology/