F E A T U R E A R T I C L E

Historical Introduction to Capacitor

Technology
Key words: capacitor, capacitor history, ceramic capacitor, film capacitor, double layer capacitor,
electrochemical capacitor

Introduction to the Series Janet Ho and T. Richard Jow

Over the next several years, this magazine will publish a se- Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, MD
ries of papers, hopefully one per issue, on the subject of capaci-
tor technology. The intention is to cover all important areas of
the technology in some detail, including film, ceramic, electro- Steven Boggs
lytic, and double-layer capacitors. One of the authors (S. B.) will Institute of Materials Science, University of
edit the series. Connecticut
Early History
Invention of the Capacitor
Capacitors are a good example of the fact that even the sim- Capacitors are a good example of the
plest device, in this case nothing more than an insulator between fact that even the simplest device can
2 conductors, can become complex given 250 years of technical
evolution. The beginning of capacitor technology is generally become complicated given 250 years
attributed to the invention in October 1745 of the Leyden jar by of evolution.
the German Ewald Georg von Kleist. Independently, Pieter van
Musschenbroek, a Dutch physicist at the University of Leyden,
discovered the Leyden jar in 1746 [1]. As originally constructed,
the Leyden jar consisted of a narrow-neck jar partially filled with tion of the vacuum tube (De Forest, 1907; Langmuir, 1916),
water with an electrical lead brought through a cork in the neck of which facilitated electronic amplifiers required for long-distance
the bottle to the water. In von Kleist’s implementation, his hands telephone (coast-to-coast, 1915) and practical radio technology
holding the jar formed the outer electrode. After charging the jar first licensed commercially in 1920; however, the first AC line-
with an electrostatic generator connected to the water, von Kleist powered radio was not introduced until 1927 (RCA Radiola 17).
was able to give himself a painful shock by touching the lead to The rapid evolution of line-operated radio receivers created a
the water while still holding the jar, something he apparently large consumer product market for capacitors.
did only once! The Dutch Leyden jar employed a foil electrode
over the outside surface of the jar to form a true capacitor. The Early Capacitors
American journalist, statesmen, and inventor Benjamin Franklin A wax-impregnated paper dielectric capacitor with foil elec-
showed that the water in the jar was not an essential element as trodes was invented by Fitzgerald in 1876 [3]. The earliest capac-
had been thought by the inventors; as a result, he was able to itors used in radio receivers employed foil and wax-impregnated
make flat capacitors consisting of a sheet of glass between foil paper (Figure 1) for power supply filtering and mica dielectric
electrodes [2]. Faraday made major contributions to capacitor capacitors for RF circuits (Figure 2). As wax-impregnated paper
technology, including the concept of dielectric constant as well and foil capacitors are quite bulky, the power supplies of these
as the invention of the first practical fixed and variable capaci- radios normally employed filter chokes, i.e., inductors, in com-
tors. His contributions to capacitor technology are recognized in bination with the rectifier and capacitors to reduce power supply
the unit for capacitance. ripple. For example, the first line-powered RCA radio employed
two 1-µF capacitors and three filter chokes. Higher voltage ca-
Early Sources of Commercial Demand pacitors of the time were based on oil-impregnated paper and
Capacitor technology did not evolve rapidly until the inven- metal foil.

20 0883-7554/07/$25/©2010IEEE IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine

Figure 1. Examples of early waxed paper and foil capacitors
taken from antique radios. Such capacitors tend to be unreliable
and are usually replaced with metalized polymer film capacitors
when restoring a radio. Photo courtesy of P. I. Nelson, www.
antiqueradio.org, and used with permission.

Mica dielectric capacitors (Figure 2) were invented in 1909

by William Dubilier, with principal application in the area of
radio transmission. In 1915, Dubilier founded the Dubilier
Figure 2. Selection of early mica capacitors. From the begin-
Condenser Company in New York, and in 1933, the company
ning, mica capacitors were very reliable, as they are today. Their
merged with Cornell Radio to form Cornell-Dubilier Electric.
expense precludes widespread use today, although they are still
From the beginning, mica capacitors, typically silver mica, have
available. Photo courtesy of William Harris, nbcblue@hotmail.
been highly reliable because mica is an excellent dielectric with
com.
outstanding discharge resistance.
Patents on the electrolytic capacitor (Figure 3) technology
date back to 1897 when Charles Pollak was granted a patent
for a borax electrolyte aluminum (Al) electrolytic capacitor, to understanding the crystallography, phase transitions, and the
and the first wet electrolytic capacitors appeared in radios in the optimization of this family of materials [6]. The development
late 1920s. These had a very limited lifespan, and the company of multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) fabrication using the
that introduced them went bankrupt. In 1936, Cornell-Dubilier tape casting and ceramic-electrode cofiring processes during
opened a factory in Plainfield, NJ, and introduced a line of com­ the 1970s and 1980s expanded the range of ceramic capacitor
mer­cial Al electrolytic capacitors. This might have been the first application to larger capacitances and higher voltages depend-
commercial production of electrolytic capacitors since failure ing on whether the layers were arranged in series or parallel.
of the technology in the late 1920s. Electrolytic capacitors did At present, more than 1012 barium titanate–based MLCC are
not become highly reliable until World War II when sufficient manufactured each year. Ceramic capacitors are not limited to
resources were devoted to identify and eliminate the causes of barium titanate MLCC. A wide range of ceramic formulations
early failure [4]. has been developed, some with very high dielectric constants but
Ceramics have been used as electrical insulation since the usually with large temperature/voltage coefficients, and others
earliest studies of electricity. As noted earlier, the first capaci- with lower dielectric constants but lower, and in some cases near
tor, the Leyden jar, was a ceramic capacitor. Prior to World War zero, temperature/voltage coefficients.
II, mica was the most common ceramic dielectric for capaci- A metalized, self-clearing paper capacitor was patented by
tors, although porcelain, steatite, cordierite, and rutile were also Mansbridge in 1900 [5], [6] and was based on metalizing with
used. Capacitors based on titanium dioxide (rutile) were avail- a metal particle-filled binder, which resulted in fre­quent shorts
able commercially around 1926. The 1941 discovery of barium through the paper. Metalized paper capacitors reached maturity
titanate [5] with a dielectric constant in the range of 1,000, dur­ing World War II, with Bosch manufacturing metalized paper
about 10 times greater than any dielectrics known at the time, capacitors using lacquer-coated paper and vacuum-deposited
focused attention on the barium titanate family of materials for metal [7]. The lacquer reduced electrolytic corrosion of the metal
a range of wartime applications, including capacitors (Figure and increased insulation resistance. Further attention was given
4). In the following decades, a great deal of effort was devoted to metalized paper capacitors around 1950 when they were in-

January/February — Vol. 26, No. 1 21

 1950s and was produced as 12-µm metalized capacitor film by
1954 [8]. Semi­crys­talline polypro­pylene was discovered around
1951 by multiple investigators, which resulted in patent litiga-
tion that continued into the late 1980s! A 1959 paper [9] dis-
cusses “Development of Plastic Dielectric Capacitors” made
from polyethylene, polystyrene, polytetrafluoroethylene, PET,
and polycarbonate, i.e., the most common capacitor films other
than polypropylene. By 1970, film-foil capacitors (without pa-
per) were being manufactured for electric utility applications.
Capacitors based on electric double-layer charge storage
were first patented by General Electric in 1957 but were never
commercialized. Subsequent double-layer capacitor designs
patented by Standard Oil of Ohio did lead to commercial prod-
uct introduction in 1978 by Nippon Electric Corporation. Their
Supercapacitor trademarked product was rated at 5.5 V and had
capacitance values up to 1 F. These 5-cm3-size or smaller capaci-
tors were used as battery substitutes to provide backup power
Figure 3. Examples of early electrolytic capacitors taken from for volatile CMOS computer memory. Products available today
antique radios. These capacitors are also unreliable and are from about 2 dozen manufacturers around the world range in
replaced when restoring such a radio. Photo courtesy of P. I. sizes up to 9 kF (9,000 F) at 2.7 V, with this largest-size device
Nelson, www.antiqueradio.org, and used with permission. being easily held in one hand.
Figure 5 presents a time line for the development of capacitor
technology along with a corresponding cultural (musical) time
troduced into the tele­phone system. Metalized paper capacitors line that may help relate technological and cultural/historical de-
were very reliable as long as they were dried care­fully and sealed velopment.
into a dry environment. Around 1954, Bell Labs took this system
a step further by separating the lacquer from the paper and mak- Present Challenges and Limitations
ing capacitors based on 2.5-µm-thick metalized lacquer film that At present, the important capacitor technologies are impreg-
were substantially smaller than metalized paper capacitors [8]. nated foil-polymer film (for high voltage, high current), met-
This could be the first metalized polymer film capacitor. alized film, ceramic, electrolytic, and electric double layer, al-
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was patented by Whinfield though metalized paper is still used occasionally in “soggy foil”
and Dickson in 1941. A very strong PET, trademarked Mylar designs, i.e., self-clearing, fluid-impregnated, high-voltage ca-
by Dupont (1952), evolved from work on Dacron in the early pacitors. Each of these major technolo­gies faces challenges as
they compete with each other for market share.
Ceramic capacitor dielectrics exhibit high dielectric constant
but low breakdown field. As a result ceramic capacitors provide
very high capacitance but typically exhibit a low breakdown
field as a result of porosity in the ceramic structure, which arises
from incomplete consolidation of the ceramic particles during
the manufacturing process. In addition, a higher dielectric con-
stant material tends to have a lower breakdown field than a lower
dielectric constant material simply because, at a given electric
field, it stores more energy, which can precipitate breakdown.
Thus, a major challenge in ceramic capacitor technology is to
improve density and break­down strength through techniques
such as the use of nanoceramic powders, various forms of im-
pregnation to reduce porosity, etc. The relatively low breakdown
strength combined with very high dielectric constant of ceramic
capacitors makes them well suited to low-voltage applications
because the thickness can be matched well to the voltage. They
are less well suited to high-voltage applications as a result of the
Figure 4. Examples of early ceramic capacitors taken from an- low breakdown strength, although doorknob ceramic capacitors
tique radios. Early ceramic capacitors looked very much like are manufactured to at least 50 kV, which is achieved by incor-
modern examples, although somewhat larger for a given ca- porating a large safety margin at the expense of a low capaci-
pacitance. Then, as now, ceramic capacitors were very reliable. tance on the order of 1 nF.
Photo courtesy of P. I. Nelson, www.antiqueradio.org, and used The failure mode of ceramic capacitors also presents a chal-
with permission. lenge. Unlike polymer capacitors, which fail gracefully by oxi-

22 IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine

Figure 5. Capacitor time line with corresponding cultural time line for reference.

dizing/vaporizing the dielectric and aluminum electrode, ceramic strength. Promising developments have been reported based on
dielectrics tend to crack during breakdown, rendering the entire copolymers of PVDF that are ferroelectric relaxors. Of polymer
device useless. In addition, the internal electrode, typically 0.5 films, only PET is well suited to low-voltage capacitors because
to 1 µm in thickness, cannot be vaporized readily to isolate the it can be made to less than 0.5 µm in thickness. Polypropyl-
breakdown region electrically. The catastrophic failure mode of ene, which along with PET dominates film capacitors, cannot be
ceramic capacitors is an obstacle to their acceptance for critical made thinner than about 3 µm, which, given its breakdown field
applications in which a disruption of operation is not acceptable in the range of 700 V/µm, means it is not well matched to low-
or in which the energy stored is so large as to render the capaci- voltage applications. The other major advantage of metalized
tor dangerous upon shorting. Efforts have been made to address polymer film capacitors is graceful failure that results from self-
this issue, such as integrating fuses at MLCC terminations and clearing. This allows operation at increased field because break-
parylene coating on monolithic ceramic capacitors, but success down of the polymer film results in only a minute reduction in
has been very limited. capacitance rather than catastrophic failure of the capacitor as is
The abundance of ceramic compounds and the diverse prop- the case with foil-based or ceramic-based designs. Self-clearing
erties thereof has resulted in a wide range of materials suited comes at the cost of a number of complications, including a wire
to specific applications, a good example of which is the recent arc metal spray end connection that has limited current-carrying
development of a class of antiferroelectric ceramics with a field- capability, the improvement of which is an area of active inves-
dependent phase transition to ferroelectric, as a result of which tigation.
they achieve an energy density greater than 10 J/cc. Some such For very high-voltage applications, metalized film capacitors
materials have a meta-stable antiferroelectric to ferroelectric can be made with multiple sections in series across the film. This
transition that results in a large dielectric constant under DC facilitates fairly compact, high-voltage capacitors; however, a
bias, which makes them an excellent candidate for DC link ca- great deal of volume is wasted as a result of the margins required
pacitors. Recently, glass-based dielectrics have become a popu- between the sections so that high energy density in such designs
lar candidate for high breakdown strength materials. Porosity- is unlikely. For fast pulse discharge applications, the end con-
free ferroelectric glass-ceramics in which ferroelectric particles nections of such designs often limit the peak current output.
are precipitated from an engineered glass have achieved a break- Foil-film designs dominate capacitors used for reactive com-
down strength near 100 V/µm, an order of magnitude greater pensation in utility power systems, although designs based on
than conventional ceramics. As a result of their inorganic nature, metalized film capacitors are available. Foil-film capacitors can
ceramic capacitors can be formulated to operate at much higher achieve very high power density, i.e., very large current discharge
temperatures than organic polymer-based dielectrics, which is over very short times, because they can be designed with low
important for applications such as filter capacitors in power elec- equivalent series inductance, very low equivalent series resis-
tronics based on wide band gap semiconductors. tance (ESR), and unlimited end-connection current density. The
Polymer films can have Weibull characteristic breakdown energy density is limited by the need for conservative operating
fields >700 V/µm for test areas of a few square centimeters fields because the system is not self-clearing. Foil-film technol-
with a Weibull slope parameter in the range of 15, which is ogy can be used to make extremely compact, high-voltage ca-
very good. However, they have low dielectric constants, in the pacitors through the use of multiple sections in series within the
range of 2.2 for near-perfect dielectrics such as polypropylene winding. Unlike the case of metalized film capacitors, this can
and polystyrene and up to 12 for ferroelectric polymers such as be done with very little wasted volume because the margin be-
polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), which are far from perfect with tween sections runs across the film in the longitudinal direction
tan(δ) in the range of 1%. Thus, the emphasis in this technology (film width) rather than in the winding direction (film length) as
is greater dielectric constant and, if possible, greater dielectric for metalized film capacitors. In such a multiple-sections foil de-

January/February — Vol. 26, No. 1 23

 sign, the winding connections must be made at the center (to the of discharges. The importance of self-clearing and the result-
first foil) and at the outer radius (to the last foil), which means ing graceful failure is sometimes not appreciated fully. Graceful
that the current spirals between the 2 connections, which cre- failure is essential for any capacitor that stores large amounts of
ates substantial inductance. Thus, the self-resonant frequency of energy because the alternative is explosive failure, which is haz-
such capacitors can be very low (100s of kHz) relative to other ardous. In addition to the improve­ments brought by metalized
designs. film, high-temperature film dielectrics have been developed that
Aluminum electrolytic capacitor technology tends to be fairly facilitate wave soldering of circuit boards, down-hole applica-
mature, although the size of electrolytic capacitors has dropped tions in the oil industry, etc.
substantially over the years, especially for the lower voltages. Ceramic capacitors have come a long way from their begin-
The maximum voltage rating of Al electrolytic capacitors has ning, with a wide range of formulations varying from very high
also increased slightly. Aluminum electrolytic capacitors have dielectric constant, but typically with large field and temperature
several limitations other than the obvious one of being unipolar dependence, to formulations for precision capacitors with a very
unless operated in series. They have substantial leakage current, low temperature coefficient. At present, barium titanate–based
as a result of which they are rarely used in series to achieve MLCC are the mainstay in microelectronics, while specialty
higher voltage. The maximum operating voltage is limited to be- ceramic capacitors with high temperature stability, high volt-
low 1 kV by the inability to grow the aluminum oxide coating age, and/or ultra-high capacitance are being used throughout the
sufficiently thick. electronics industry. Innovations in materials technology contin-
Solid tantalum electrolytic capacitor technology is less ma- ue to move the ceramic capacitor technology forward. Ceramic
ture, which has resulted in greater changes, including reduced compositions and processing that yield improved breakdown
ESR and the use of conducting polymer electrolyte in some de- strength, energy density, and operating temperature range will
signs. Nevertheless, solid tantalum capacitors tend to have high be the focus for the foreseeable future. Research to incorporate
ESR as a result of the solid electrolyte that makes contact with graceful failure into ceramic capacitor technology is also under-
the tantalum oxide dielectric and replaces the liquid in the alu- way.
minum electrolytic capacitor. Solid electrolytes generally have Electrolytic capacitors have become the mainstay of power
lower conductivity than liquids. supply filtering; however, their limited operating temperature
In the past, double-layer or electrochemical capacitors tended range poses a problem for future high power density electronics
to live in a world of their own because their electrical proper- based on wide band gap semiconductors. As a result, research is
ties differ greatly from traditional capacitors. Electrochemical ongoing to develop alternatives for such applications.
capacitors are based on the electric double-layer capacitance Double-layer capacitors were originally a solution looking
formed between ionic and electronic conductors, which results for a problem because they do not filter and, thus, are un-capac-
in capacitance per unit volume or weight that is unmatched by itor-like and because they store little energy and, thus, are un-
any other technology; yet, they are unsuitable for ac filtering be- battery-like. With increasing electrification of technology, for
cause they cannot charge and discharge at 60 Hz. However, they example in transportation, double-layer capacitors have become
can charge and discharge more rapidly than batteries. As a result, a widely used capacitor component. Energy storage has become
double-layer capacitors are often used to complement batteries increasingly important, and double-layer capacitor technology
in applications that have rapidly varying loads such as those en- has seen an ever-expanding role in applications involving en-
countered in electric and hybrid electric vehicles. Double-layer ergy conservation, electric power load leveling, and high-power
capacitors can also be used as a battery replacement in some millisecond-to-second-long pulse delivery, engine starting being
applications. Compared with conventional capacitors, double- but one important example.
layer capacitors have limited life at elevated temperature, which The need for improved capacitor technology is imperative
is often as low as 1,000 hours at 70 or 85°C. Nevertheless, their as our world becomes increasingly electrified. For example,
life at elevated temperature exceeds that offered by alternative transportation, which has long been the domain of petroleum-
technologies having comparable or greater energy density, such based internal combustion, is rapidly moving to hybrid electric
as secondary batteries. Thus, double-layer capacitors have their and toward all electric. Advanced low-voltage capacitors are
own spectrum of optimal applications that component engineers needed to facilitate more power-efficient and compact portable
are only beginning to exploit.  electronic devices for communications, medical applications,
and high-power electronics. Applications include implantable
Outlook defibrillators and power electronics for power conversion and
Electrostatic capacitor technology has evolved substan- distribution in hybrid electric propulsion systems. Advanced
tially in terms of materials and quality of those materials. The high-voltage capacitors are needed for reactive compensation of
widespread commercialization of self-clearing, metalized film electric power systems, energy storage and distribution related
capacitors was a major advance, although as discussed earlier, to the interfacing of renewable energy sources to the power grid,
the concept of self-clearing goes back to around 1900. The en- and for energy storage for pulsed power applications such as
ergy density of millisecond time scale pulse discharge capaci- electromagnetic-based pulse power systems. To meet the pres-
tors based on metalized film is over 2 J/cm3 for capacitors that ent and future demand, substantial advances beyond the present
can sustain very large numbers of discharges, and somewhat state-of-the-art in dielectric materials and capacitor technology
more for capacitors with limited time at charge and numbers are required. Higher energy density dielectric materials that en-

24 IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine

able the fabrication of capacitors that can operate at tempera- [9] J. H. Cozens. “Development of plastic dielectric capacitors,” IRE Trans.
tures above 150°C and can handle high-voltage and high-ripple Compon. Parts, vol. CP-6, no. 2, 1959, pp. 114–118.
current at frequencies over 20 kHz for power electronics are not
presently available. Technology for fabricating compact, high-
voltage, high-current, high-repetition-rate capacitors that deliver Janet Ho was graduated with a BS in chemical engineering
energy in sub-microseconds is also needed. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1995. She spent
In the remainder of this series we will have detailed intro- 5 years working in the field of polymeric ophthalmic lenses. In
ductions to the various capacitor technologies followed by pa- 2000, she joined the Polymer Science Program at the University
pers that get into various aspects of the technical details of those of Connecticut in pursuit of a doctorate, which she completed
technologies. Looking forward, we hope this series will serve as in 2006. She is currently a research engineer with the Army Re-
a baseline and foundation for future development. search Laboratory in Adelphi, MD, working in the area of capac-
itor technology and can be reached at [email protected].
Acknowledgments
The authors are pleased to acknowledge the contributions
T. Richard Jow is a team leader on energy storage at the
of Mr. William Harris of Colorado Springs, CO, retired from
Army Research Laboratory developing high power density bat-
IBM and an expert on early radios and the components therein,
teries and high energy density capacitors. His main focuses
[email protected]. Figure 2 was contributed by Mr. Har-
include electrolytes, electrode materials, dielectric materials
ris. Mr. Philip I. Nelson kindly allowed use of photographs of
development, and technologies for energy storage devices devel-
old capacitors (Figures 1, 3, 4) from his antique radio Web site,
opment. Dr. Jow has over 30 years of experience in these areas
www.antiqueradio.org. Mr. John Miller of JME, Inc. provided
and has authored and coauthored more than 110 publications
valuable input to the text on double-layer capacitors, as did Dr.
and 19 patents. He received his PhD in materials science and
Ming-Jen Pan of the Naval Research Laboratory in the area of
engineering from Northwestern University.
ceramic capacitors.

References Steven Boggs (F’92) was graduated with a BA from Reed

[1] G. W. A. Dummer, Electronic Inventions and Discoveries, 4th ed. Bristol,
UK: Institute of Physics Publishing, 1997, p. 74. College in 1968 and received his PhD and MBA degrees from
[2] I. B. Cohen, Dictionary of Scientific Biography, vol. 5, C.C. Gillispie, Ed. the University of Toronto in 1972 and 1987, respectively. He
New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1972, p. 129. spent 12 years with the Research Division of Ontario Hydro.
[3] D. G. Fitzgerald, “Improvements in electrical condensers or accumula-
In 1992, he was elected an IEEE Fellow for his contributions to
tors,” British Patent No. 3466/1876, Sept. 2, 1876.
[4] S. Niwa and Y. Taketani, “Development of new series of aluminium solid understanding of SF6-insulated systems. From 1987 to 1993, he
capacitors with organic semiconductive electrolyte (OS-CON),” J. Power was director of research and engineering at Underground Sys-
Sources, vol. 60, 1996, pp. 165–171. tems, Inc. He is currently director of the Electrical Insulation
[5] G. F. Mansbridge, British Patent No. 19,451, 1900.
Research Center and research professor of materials science,
[6] G. F. Mansbridge, “The manufacture of electrical condensers,” J. IEE,
vol. 41, Oct., 1908, p. 535. electrical engineering, and physics at the University of Connect-
[7] D. A. McLean, “Metalized paper for capacitors,” Proc. IRE, vol. 38, no. icut, as well as an adjunct professor of electrical and computer
9, 1950, pp. 1010–1014. engineering at the University of Toronto.
[8] D. A. McLean and H.G. Wehe, “Miniature lacquer film capacitors,” Proc.
IRE, vol. 42, no. 12, 1954, pp. 1799–1805.

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