Radial electrolytic capacitors have a wide variety of benefits. In practice, their deployment leads to an additional through-hole technology soldering step. If a design has no other through-hole components, the 9115-000 SMT holder family provides a groundbreaking workaround for the problem.

From a technical point of view, the component presents itself as shown in the figure below.

The terminals at the bottom-left side of the figure use IDC technology. This means the electrolytic capacitor can simply be pressed into the holder to establish the electrical connection. The two holding tongs towards the other side of the component then ensure a robust mechanical fitting - in particular, Kyocera AVX promises the following mechanical specifications:

• Insulator Material: Nylon UL94 V-0

• Contact Material: Phosphor Bronze

• Plating: Tin Over Nickel

• Vibration: Random 27.8 m/s2 RMS (target)

• Shock: 50g half sinus (target)

The system is quite flexible - its operating temperature range is from -40 to +60°C.

When installed, the SMD holder is only 1mm in height. Given that the capacitor lies down on its side, this significantly reduces the total size. If a capacitor with a length of 30mm is installed, its total height reduces to about 12mm. This helps applications where PCB height is severely limited. A good example would be expansion cards for workstations or modular test equipment, where the mechanical design of the card cage imposes limitations on the maximum height of the components mounted to the printed circuit board.

Compatible With a Wide Array of Capacitors

From an electrical point of view, AVX Kyocera promises that the system can handle up to 10 amperes of current. As for voltage, AC voltages with up to 300 V RMS are no problem; in terms of resistance to DC voltages, an equivalent value of 300 V DC is shown in the datasheet.

All of the SMT capacitor holder families are compatible with automated pick-and-place machines and reflow ovens. If a pick-and-place machine can handle large-ish SMD components, it can also process these.

For the actual selection, AVX Kyocera provides SKUs targeting different types of electrolytic capacitors made by a wide array of manufacturers. In particular, the table below provides an aid for decoding.

The SKU 009115002456206, for example, supports capacitors with a diameter of 10mm and a length of 30mm. The lead pitch is expected at 5mm, while the lead diameter must be 0.6mm.

Conclusion and Outlook

Kyocera AVX has shown itself to be highly innovative in terms of electromechanical parts. If an application can profit from using through-hole technology-based electrolytic capacitors but does not benefit from the additional assembly step, using the 9115-000 family is a great way to achieve design goals.