Development and Processing of Dielectric Films for Application in Large Wound Capacitors

There is currently a great need for commercially available dielectric films which can outperform biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) at higher temperatures. While this need for such materials to improve the performance of high energy capacitors is well documented for pulse power applications such as the rail gun and reactive armor in military applications, civilian applications in electric and fuel cell cars, defibrillators, and increasingly miniaturized circuits provides an additional strong commercialization pull. Metalized polymer capacitors are currently the preferred design for capacitors due to their high breakdown voltage, low dissipation factors, and self-healing characteristics; however, these polymers tend to have much lower dielectric constants than their ceramic analogs. Tetramer Technologies is developing an excellent candidate for a BOPP replacement. The material is stable well above 200 C and ha s dielectric properties equal to or greater than BOPP. In this program Tetramer will optimize the dielectric properties and thin film processing to produce prototype metalized polymer capacitors.