Bo-eun leads the digital content team. She has covered foreign affairs, North Korea, tech, economy and gender issues at The Korea Times. She did a short stint at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where she obtained a new perspective on news production and life. Small sources of joy for her are lounging in the sun, having a good latte and swimming.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics develops MLCC for self-driving vehicles
The image shows Samsung Electro-Mechanics' newest small-size and high-capacity multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) used in self-driving vehicles. Courtesy of Samsung Electro-Mechanics
By Kim Bo-eun
By Kim Bo-eun
Samsung's electronics component manufacturing affiliate said Thursday it has developed two types of multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) that are key component in self-driving cars and electronic devices such as smartphones and household appliances cars. MLCCs stabilize flow of electric current through circuits.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics announced that it had produced small-sized and ultra-high capacity MLCCs that can be used in advanced drive assist systems in autonomous cars.
The systems control lane departure warnings and smart cruising, which automatically adjusts the vehicle's speed to maintain a safe distance from vehicles ahead.
Global carmakers transition toward energy saving electric vehicles (EVs) is raising demand for high-performance chips and other components. Therefore, small-sized and high-capacity MLCCs are required given the lack of loading space based on an increase in the number of required components.
MLCCs play an essential role as they enable the storage and supply of large amounts of electricity that high-performance semiconductors require to operate.
The Samsung affiliate said its new small-sized MLCC is 0.6 millimeters in length and 0.3 millimeters in width, with a 100 nanofarad capacity ― the same as its 1 millimeter-long, 0.5 millimeter-wide predecessor, but being 64 percent smaller. Its flexibility has also been more than doubled, better protecting it from external shocks.
The component meets the AEC-Q200 global standard for stress resistance that all passive electrical components must meet, enabling it to be used also in the vehicle's body and chassis, and infotainment system.
The new high-capacity MLCC is 3.2 millimeters in length and 1.6 millimeters wide and has a capacity of 47 microfarads, more than double the capacity of the existing one's 22 microfarads. One microfarad equals 1,000 nanofarads.
"Samsung Electro-Mechanics will develop and manufacture key materials for MLCCs to strengthen our technological competitiveness, and boost our production capacity to expand our market share in MLCCs for electrical and electronic equipment used in automobiles," the company's vice president and head of component business Kim Doo-young was cited as saying in a press release.