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Image of KEMET Ceramic Capacitor Basics Pt 3 - High AC Voltage 2

Looking at the equation here, the voltage on a capacitor is determined by the AC current, ESR, ESL, the nominal capacitance, and frequency. Again, since ESL for MLCCs is usually very low, it has little impact on the voltage until it approaches the series resonant frequency. For this example, the designer will not consider the impact of ESL on the AC voltage. Given the equation, if the AC current is held constant, two conclusions are drawn: lower frequencies will result in higher AC voltages, and lower capacitance results in higher AC voltages. The result of this is that even if ripple current does not cause excessive heating, peak AC voltage still needs to be considered.

PTM Published on: 2022-07-06