Post by thread:[OT] Low Leakage Capacitors

G'day, Summary: Are all ceramic capacitors naturally "low leakage?" A friend is building a battery powered remote control and has realised that low leakage (< 0.5uA) capacitors in the circuit will significantly increase battery life given that the main chip will enter a low power sleep mode. His design uses 10uF and 0.1uF capacitors for regulator stabilisation and supply filtering throughout the board. He has found low leakage variants of the 10uF size in the Farnell cattledog, but not for the 0.1uF ceramics. Does he need to look for them or do ceramics have a low leakage anyway? -- James Cameron (spam_OUTcameronTakeThisOuTstl.dec.com) OpenVMS, Linux, Firewalls, Software Engineering, CGI, HTTP, X, C, FORTH, COBOL, BASIC, DCL, csh, bash, ksh, sh, Electronics, Microcontrollers, Disability Engineering, Netrek, Bicycles, Pedant, Farming, Home Control, Remote Area Power, Greek Scholar, Tenor Vocalist, Church Sound, Husband. "Specialisation is for insects." -- Robert Heinlein.

>His design uses 10uF and 0.1uF capacitors for regulator stabilisation >and supply filtering throughout the board. He has found low leakage >variants of the 10uF size in the Farnell cattledog, but not for the >0.1uF ceramics. Does he need to look for them or do ceramics have a low >leakage anyway? Cerams are generally FAR lower leakage than electrolytics, BUT I have had some problems with 0.1uF (and no other value) shorting out in 5-10V circuits. Multiple vendors... I'm switching to 0.047s unless I can't do it without the 0.1.