Residual stress evolution in multilayer ceramic capacitors corresponding to layer increase and its correlation to the dielectric constant

The residual thermal stress in multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) with varying number of layers was analyzed using finite element analysis, in order to find the links among the dielectric constant, the number of layers, and the stress state. In the active region of the MLCC, the in-plane stresses in a ceramic layer, σ11 and σ22, were compressive while the out-of-plane stress, σ33, was mostly tensile. Changes in the dielectric constant were related to the reinforcement of the compressive in-plane stress components for small numbers of layers, while out-of-plane tensile stress was attributed to the increased dielectric constant when the number of layers was large. In the intermediate regime, in-plane stress components and out-of-plane components both affected the dielectric constant.