Every Wednesday we highlight a component from the updated partlist. This week: surface mount ceramic capacitors.
Ceramic capacitors are cheaper than aluminum and tantalum SMD caps, but come in smaller values. Typical values are in the pF to 1uF range, but we’ve noticed some 2uF+ ceramic caps at Mouser recently. Most have a maximum rating between 25 and 50volts.
Unlike electrolytic capacitors, ceramic caps are unpolarized. There’s no + or – side, they can’t go in backwards on accident.
Our favorite packages are 0805 and 0603. We recently standardized on the smaller 0603 because it can be 30-50% cheaper than 0805.
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I think it would be important to add dielectric type to the part finder chart.
A 1uF 6.3V Y5V capacitor used in 5V application could have an effective capacitance of 300nF (and that is assuming room temperature.)
Ceramics (all dielectrics except NPO/C0G) lose capacitance with applied voltage and change in temperature.