Modeling the Capacitance of an SMT Capacitor with Q3D

Geometry and setup

Pad size: 0.5 mm × 0.5 mm × 0.017 mm
Cathode/Anode: 0.5 mm × 0.1 mm × 0.5 mm
Plate: 0.5 mm × 0.7 mm × 0.05 mm
Dielectric: 1.5 mm × 1.8 mm × 0.1 mm
Gap between any two plates: 0.1 mm
Capacitor size: 1005
Dielectric: εr = 4.4
Solve Setup:
Solver residual: 0.0001
Adaptive solution:
  • Maximum number of passes: 10
  • Minimum number of passes: 1
  • Minimum converged passes: 1
  • Percent error: 1%
  • Percent refinement per pass: 30%

Download input geometry q3d_smtcap.zip

Simulation result

Anode Capacitance: 0.521 pF
Cathode Capacitance: 0.524 pF
Mutual Capacitance: 0.495 pF

Decisions the user must make that affect the accuracy of the result

  • Solver residual : 1e-005
  • Percent error for adaptive solution: 1%
  • Dielectric constant of the capacitor
  • Distance between two electrodes

Comments

  • The distance between plates is much larger than we would find in an actual SMT Multi-Layer Capacitor (MLC). Why not model a more realistic geometry?

    The complexity of a real SMT MLC would require significantly greater computer resources to model accurately and the solution would be sensitive to details in the problem geometry and in the mesh geometry. While a great deal can be learned about the factors affecting the capacitance of an SMT MLC from these models, it is not likely that two different codes would yield identical results.
Screen shots
simulation model
Fig. 1. Simulation model
simulation mesh
Fig. 2. Simulation meshes
charge density
Fig. 3. Charge density