Vishay offers industry’s first SMD ceramic safety capacitors with Y1 rating

Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. has introduced a new series of surface-mount AC line-rated ceramic disc safety capacitors that are the industry’s first such devices to offer a Y1 rating of 500 VAC and 1500 VDC.

Designed to withstand harsh, high humidity environments, the Vishay BCcomponents SMDY1 series devices offer industry-high capacitance to 4.7 nF.

The new capacitors will be used for EMI / RFI filtering in power supplies, solar inverters, smart meters, and LED drivers. For these applications, the closest competing devices only offer capacitance up to 1.5 nF and Y1 ratings to 300 VAC, with no DC rating.

Additionally, the SMDY1 series offers higher humidity resistance with a Class IIB humidity grade (per IEC60384-14 annex I) and a moisture sensitivity level of 2a. Allowing for surface-mount assembly with a reflow soldering process, the new series also reduces production costs. Compared to through-hole devices, they offer a lower profile and eliminate the need for clearance space on the backside of the PCB.

RoHS-compliant and halogen-free, the components consist of a copper-plated ceramic disc and feature encapsulation made of flame-resistant epoxy resin per UL 94 V-0.