Significantly enhanced dielectric breakdown strength and energy density of multilayer ceramic capacitors with high efficiency by electrodes structure design

Multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) are attracting great interest recently, especially in energy-storage applications due to their high volumetric capacitance, high power density, and fast charge-discharge capability. However, the low dielectric breakdown strength of ferroelectric ceramics always leads to a low discharge energy density, which limits their applications in high-voltage energy-storage systems. In this work, a phase-field electromechanical breakdown model is introduced to give a fundamental understanding of the dielectric breakdown behavior of MLCCs and provide a resource-efficient design strategy for the structure of MLCCs to enhance their dielectric breakdown strength and discharge energy density. Three types of margin lengths of 100 μm, 200 μm, and 400 μm are designed and applied on the MLCCs consisting of ten dielectric layers with the single-layer thickness of 11 μm, to confirm and practice our phase-field breakdown model. A large discharge energy density of 7.8 J cm−3 can be achieved under the applied electric field of 790 kV/cm, together with a high efficiency of 88% in a 400 μm-margin-length MLCC.