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Capacitor Array

Capacitor Array (IPC)

AVX capacitor arrays offer designers the opportunity to

lower placement costs, increase assembly line output

through lower component count per board and to reduce

real estate requirements.

Reduced Costs

Placement costs are greatly reduced by effectively placing

one device instead of four or two. This results in increased

throughput and translates into savings on machine time.

Inventory levels are lowered and further savings are made

on solder materials, etc.

Space Saving

Space savings can be quite dramatic when compared to

the use of discrete chip capacitors. As an example, the

0508 4-element array offers a space reduction of >40% vs.

4 x 0402 discrete capacitors and of >70% vs. 4 x 0603

discrete capacitors. (This calculation is dependent on the

spacing of the discrete components.)

Increased Throughput

Assuming that there are 220 passive components placed in a

mobile phone:

A reduction in the passive count to 200 (by replacing

discrete components with arrays) results in an increase in

throughput of approximately 9%.

A reduction of 40 placements increases throughput by 18%.

For high volume users of cap arrays using the very latest

placement equipment capable of placing 10 components per

second, the increase in throughput can be very significant and

can have the overall effect of reducing the number of place-

ment machines required to mount components:

If 120 million 2-element arrays or 40 million 4-element arrays

were placed in a year, the requirement for placement

equipment would be reduced by one machine.

During a 20Hr operational day a machine places 720K

components. Over a working year of 167 days the machine

can place approximately 120 million. If 2-element arrays are

mounted instead of discrete components, then the number

of placements is reduced by a factor of two and in the

scenario where 120 million 2-element arrays are placed there

is a saving of one pick and place machine.

Smaller volume users can also benefit from replacing

discrete components with arrays. The total number of place-

ments is reduced thus creating spare capacity on placement

machines. This in turn generates the opportunity to increase

overall production output without further investment in new

equipment.

W2A (0508) Capacitor Arrays

The 0508 4-element capacitor array gives a PCB space saving of over 40%

vs four 0402 discretes and over 70% vs four 0603 discrete capacitors.

W3A (0612) Capacitor Arrays

The 0612 4-element capacitor array gives a PCB space saving of over 50%

vs four 0603 discretes and over 70% vs four 0805 discrete capacitors.

5.0 (0.197)

1.4

(0.055)

1.0

(0.039)

2.1 (0.083)

1.88

(0.074)

4 pcs 0402 Capacitors

=

1 pc 0508 Array

6.0 (0.236)

2.3

(0.091)

1.5

(0.059)

3.2 (0.126)

2.0

(0.079)

4 pcs 0603 Capacitors

=

1 pc 0612 Array

BENEFITS OF USING CAPACITOR

ARRAYS