The downstream application scenarios of the multi-layer ceramic capacitor (MLCC)cover almost all scenarios that require electronic equipment, from the consumer field, communication field, industrial field, automotive field to military industry, aerospace field, these applications are indispensable for MLCC. The main downstream application markets of MLCC include consumer electronics, communication base stations, automotive electronics and industrial equipment.

MLCC(multilayer ceramic capacitor)

From the perspective of application demand, about 70% of the demand for MLCC comes from the field of consumer electronics . However, with the decline in demand for smartphones, tablets, and PCs, MLCC showed a weak trend in the consumer market last year. The slowdown in consumer demand has caused MLCC manufacturers to face the problem of prolonged destocking time. As consumer MLCC profits are getting lower and lower, many MLCC manufacturers are shifting to automotive applications, energy storage applications and 5G applications.

Some people say, “Automobiles are a collection of MLCCs.” MLCCs for vehicles have ushered in a substantial growth under the upgrade of intelligent and electrified vehicles. High-reliability MLCCs for automotive use include soft-terminal capacitors, bracket capacitors, and three-terminal capacitors.

The soft terminal capacitor adds a flexible resin layer to the terminal electrode, which can reduce the “bending crack” problem caused by stress. The bracket capacitor installs a metal frame on the terminal electrode, which has the characteristics of large capacitance, low ESL and high reliability. The three-terminal capacitor adopts a through-type structure, which has the characteristics of low ESL, and can play the role of noise reduction and decoupling in a wide frequency band.

These automotive MLCCs have a large number of applications ranging from automotive ADAS to various control systems, from positioning modules to battery management modules. An electric vehicle requires tens of thousands of MLCCs, and most of them are high-end models with high performance. MLCC has a wide range of capacitance, the upper limit is about 100uF, and the upper limit of voltage is about 1000V.

Automotive MLCCs

In terms of performance, these automotive MLCCs mainly present the characteristics of high capacitance and low ESL. In addition, the product itself needs to be able to be used in high temperature, high pressure and high power environments. According to the calculations of relevant securities companies, the global demand for automotive MLCCs is expected to increase from 0.40 trillion units to 0.68 trillion units in 2022-2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 20%. Among them, the demand for MLCC for electric vehicles has increased to 0.42 trillion pieces, with a compound annual growth rate of 37%.

Another market with strong demand is 5G terminals. With the increase of 5G penetration rate, the number of 5G terminal equipment has increased significantly, and the utilization rate of MLCC in it has increased significantly. MLCCs in 5G terminals are mainly used to control power supply ripple, load transient overshoot/undershoot, and EMI. The biggest feature of MLCC in this application is high frequency. 5G equipment has higher frequency and wider bandwidth, which requires higher high frequency performance of MLCC.

Another feature is high temperature resistance. The circuit substrate and components used in 5G base stations generate high heat, which is easy to cause local high temperature. The upper limit of the operating temperature of MLCC is also required to be increased. According to the calculations of relevant securities companies, the demand for MLCCs for 5G mobile phones alone is expected to increase to 1.62 trillion units in 2025.

Source:IBE Electronics