Capacitors are ubiquitous in any electronic device. Among the different variants, aluminium electrolytic capacitors (AECs) represent ca. 30% of this ever-growing multi-billion Euro market. This growth is propelled by the electrification of the automotive industry and other cutting-edge technologies that depend on power electronics. In fact, AECs are the only cost-effective solution for many applications where large capacitance and low cost per Farad are required, such as power supply filtering, power backup to an integrated circuit (IC) unit or as bypass between a power supply and an IC unit. However, the main disadvantage of AECs is their poor reliability: 15% of electronic breakdowns are caused by failure of AECs in static converters, which are an integral part of any device and are not easily replaceable, so directly generating e-waste. This issue is prevalent in power supplies, where failure rates associated with AECs are common. The root cause is the “catastrophic failure” inherent in AECs that is due to avalanche breakdown of their dielectric, creating a random failure. They are also susceptible to other types of failures that are caused by high temperature soldering, ripple-current temperature rise, or drying out/leaking of the electrolyte. And these failures generally generate heat, which can cause internal boiling of the electrolyte that bursts the safety plug and potentially creates physical damage. Their catastrophic failure may lead to a device becoming totally inoperable or, even worse, a short circuit that can possibly lead to an explosion.
Electrochemical double layer capacitors (EDLCs) can become an alternative to these capacitors. EDLCs intrinsically have higher capacitance than AECs, however, present commercial products do not have any capacitance at mid-to-high frequencies and thus cannot be used as an AEC replacement. P.CAP aims to demonstrate that those limitations can be overcome and mid-frequency operating EDLCs can be produced. The main goal of the project is to product an EDLC capable of replacing electrolytic capacitors and to widen their operation temperature, a key feature in certain power electronics applications.
