Hybrid capacitors

Hybrid capacitors are the logical development of aluminium electrolyte and polymer capacitors. They combine the advantages of both technologies in the range up to 80 V and are therefore extremely interesting for current application requirements in industry, medicine and the automotive sector.

Thanks to the more effective transport of charge in comparison to electrolyte capacitors, it is possible to achieve much lower ESR values, which leads to lower losses and therefore higher efficiency. One positive side effect is that this also achieves better behaviour for high-frequency applications. Compared to pure polymer capacitors, they offer advantages in terms of regeneration and self-healing. For example, the already very low leakage current values of a hybrid capacitor drop much more quickly after soldering than is the case with polymer capacitors. Furthermore, higher capacitance values can be achieved with the same packaging space than with polymer capacitors.

Different investigations have shown that, in a direct comparison of the same CV product, hybrid capacitors display 3.5 times as much usable capacitance in some cases than comparable aluminium electrolyte capacitors.

This means that, on account of the lower derating, the capacitance can be better used particularly for high frequencies than on conventional aluminium electrolyte capacitors. In a direct comparison, this means that a lower nominal capacitance is required for the hybrids, which can lead to smaller component sizes and therefore to better value for money. Or developers have the opportunity to take advantage of a boost in performance.

Furthermore, a single hybrid capacitor can often be used to replace multiple aluminium electrolyte capacitors if the requirements of the application are current-intensive. For example, only 20 % of the space is required compared to a solution with conventional aluminium electrolyte capacitors.

Due to the high ripple current load, the gap between aluminium electrolyte capacitors and ceramic capacitors is of course also being bridged and will be covered as far as possible.

The boundaries between the two forms of capacitor technology are thus being blurred more and more.

At present, hybrid capacitors are offered as SMD units in the voltage range from 16 to 80 V with an available capacitance range from 10 to 470 µF and an upper operating temperature limit of +135 °C. Components are available as radial THT versions in the voltage range from 25 to 63 V with an available capacitance range from 100 to 330 µF and an upper operating temperature limit of +135 °C again.

If the data in the data sheets is insufficient, a customer mission profile up to +150 °C with a corresponding current load applied can be tested in-house and documented. The result is usually a customer-specific hybrid capacitor that meets all the customer requirements.

Some of the series of hybrid capacitors are subjected to climate tests at +85 °C and 85 % relative humidity, which is documented in the specification. Further documentation, including specifically for use in automotive applications, can be made available on request.

Please get in touch if you have further technical questions or wish to order free samples.

The manufacturers’ data sheets for the hybrid capacitors can be found here: [Hybrid]