Back to results
US 2018/0321090 A1Published application
Lifetime Determining Technique for a Solid Electrolytic Capacitor and System for the Same
AssigneeAVX Corporation
InventorsJan Petrzilek, Miloslav Uher
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method for determining the lifetime of a capacitor element, specifically a capacitor element comprising a solid electrolyte that undergoes oxidation, is provided. The system and method utilize a capacitor element comprising an anode body, a dielectric, and a solid electrolyte, and may also comprise other stages of the production of a capacitor. The system and method provide an estimation of the life of the capacitor while considering the oxidation of the solid electrolyte.
Claims20
A capacitor lifetime determining system comprising:
- a capacitor element, wherein the capacitor element comprises a sintered porous anode body, a dielectric that overlies the anode body, and a solid electrolyte that overlies the dielectric;
- a capacitance measuring device, the measuring device configured to measure the capacitance of the capacitor element;
- a control device, the control device configured to apply thermodynamic temperatures to the system;
- and
- a computing device, wherein the computing device is configured to determine constants A/x and −E/k associated with data obtained at the applied thermodynamic temperatures based on technique (1):
- A
- x
-
- t
-
-
- e
- [
- -
- E
- k
- ]
-
- 1
- T
- =
- 1
- (
- 1
- )
- wherein x is an amount of oxidized solid electrolyte, t is a time in which the capacitance of the capacitor element is decreased by a specified level, T is a thermodynamic temperature, A is a frequency factor, k is Bolzmann constant, e is Euler constant, and E is an activation energy of the reaction;
- wherein the computing device is configured to determine a time to degradation to the specified level at a proposed thermodynamic temperature using the activation energy and frequency factor associated with the applied thermodynamic temperatures based on technique (1);
- and
- wherein the solid electrolyte comprises a conductive polymer.
26 more elements
A method of determining the lifetime of a capacitor comprising:
- controlling a first temperature to which a first capacitor element is exposed,
- measuring a capacitance of the first capacitor element after exposure to the first temperature,
- determining a time in which the capacitance of the first capacitor element during exposure to the first temperature is decreased by a specified level,
- controlling a second temperature to which a second capacitor element is exposed,
- measuring a capacitance of the second capacitor element after exposure to the second temperature,
- determining a time in which the capacitance of the second capacitor element during exposure to the second temperature is decreased by the specified level,
- applying technique (1) to determine constants A/x and −E/k associated with the first and second temperatures:
- A
- x
-
- t
-
-
- e
- [
- -
- E
- k
- ]
-
- 1
- T
- =
- 1
- ,
- (
- 1
- )
- wherein x is an amount of oxidized solid electrolyte, t is time, T is thermodynamic temperature, A is a frequency factor, k is Bolzmann constant, e is Euler constant, and E is activation energy of the reaction and
- applying the constants A/x and −E/k associated with the first and second temperatures to technique (1) to determine a time to degradation at a third temperature,
- wherein the first and second capacitor elements comprise a sintered anode body, a dielectric formed along the sintered anode body, and a solid electrolyte formed along the dielectric;
- and wherein the solid electrolyte comprises a conductive polymer.
29 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.