Vishay – New SMD RF capacitors offer industry’s highest SRF for applications to 20GHz

A new surface-mount thin-film RF capacitor with the industry’s highest self-resonance frequency (SRF) has been unveiled by Vishay, offering ranges from 8.5GHz to upwards of 20GHz depending on capacitance. The RFCS series of capacitors replaces the previous-generation HPC product line.

The RFCS devices have a Q of 260 to 70,500 at 100MHz, and 10 to 3,190 at 1GHz. The capacitors measure only 0.040 x 0.020 x 0.015 inch. They are rated for a working voltage of up to 50V and feature a capacitance range of 0.2pF to 27pF with a tight tolerance of ±5%.

With a thin-film capacitor-on-silicon construction, the RFCS series devices are designed for RF circuits that require exceptional performance at frequencies up to 20GHz. The ‘unique’ structure of the RFCS capacitors is based on thin-film electrodes deposited on a highly conductive silicon substrate. This patented structure is characterized by ultra-low parasitic inductance, which allows the component to self-resonate at significantly higher frequencies than alternative technologies.

The RFCS capacitors will typically be used for impedance matching circuits, decoupling, DC blocking, lumped element filters, and other circuit applications requiring ultra-thin components, such as smart credit cards and SIM cards. Typical end products in which the device will be used include test and measurement equipment, RF receivers and transmitters, high-frequency data transfer (telecom, datacom, etc.), and other applications with operating frequencies greater than 5GHz.

The device’s extraordinarily low height profile of 0.015 inch is enabled by a patented MOS configuration. This structure allows the caps to be further lapped down to ultra-thin form factors of less than 0.01 inch This is useful in applications such as embedded circuitry in credit cards, SIM cards, and counterfeit-proof official documents such as passports. The RFCS capacitor features lead (Pb)-free terminations and is suitable for lead (Pb)-free soldering. Samples and production quantities of the new RFCS are available, says the company.