High Speed and High Voltage Capacitors for Naval HPRF Directed Energy Applications

Ballistic Devices will develop a capacitor that utilizes Cubic Zirconia, a single crystal high-K dielectric material. The single crystal design approach is expected to enable orders of magnitude improvement in energy density over conventional ceramic capacitor designs. It is expected that these components will be able to operate at near the theoretical dielectric breakdown field strength and enable a new class of dielectric capacitors. The proposed component is expected to have an energy density of 2.8 J/cm3, a capacitance of 5nF, and be able to operate at 80,000V. The proposed capacitor will handle pulsed currents in excess of 2000A for tens of nanoseconds all while being cycled at 1 MHz. This component will hold to a C0G temperature specification, and is expected to behave linearly over the operating voltage range. This new component will enable a plethora of new pulsed power applications by reducing size, and weight, and by increasing power density over conventional designs.