Kemet, NEC Extend Ta Cap Pact

Electronic News, June 21, 1999

Will second source each other's conductive polymer tantalums

Greenville, S.C.-Kemet Electronics Corp. and NEC Corp. of Japan have extended their previous joint development agreement for high- performance conductive polymer tantalum capacitors, now agreeing to officially promote themselves as second sources for each other on those lines in the United States and Japan. The move is aimed at pushing those parts as standards over competing designs.

The pair has signed a "Cooperative Promotional Agreement" to jointly promote identical high-performance conductive polymer tantalum capacitors under their respective product names: KO Caps by Kemet, and NeoCapacitors by NEC. This agreement supplements the "Technical License Agreement" signed in 1998, which relates to the manufacture of these capacitors, which are reportedly priced in the 40 cents to 50 cents range in large volumes.

Kemet is currently manufacturing the KO Cap at its Simpsonville, S.C., plant, with volume shipments at the rate of 1 million parts per month slated to start June 24, increasing to 10 million parts per month by the first quarter of 2000. "We currently believe that sales revenues from KO Caps should be $8 million to $10 million for 1999, rising to more than $50 million by next year," said Charles M. Culbertson II, senior vice president and general manager, tantalum. "This new Cooperative Promotional Agreement, in conjunction with the original Technical License Agreement, will provide the industry standard for tantalum polymer capacitors and give our customers a second source for these products."

The technical and promotional alliance between the two companies also allows for the continued development and manufacture of next-generation technologies for polymer capacitors.

Kemet's new KO Cap product uses a conductive polymer counter electrode to replace the existing manganese dioxide (MnO2) counter electrode in surface-mount tantalum capacitors. The KO Cap offers a capacitor that combines the best high-frequency performance characteristics of ceramic capacitors with the unmatched high-volumetric efficiency/capacitance of tantalum capacitors, Kemet claims, making them an excellent choice to replace low-ESR aluminum through-hole capacitors and some high- capacitance ceramics. The primary applications for these parts are input/output filtering on power converters and power decoupling around microprocessors. Initial offerings will be limited to 4-, 6-, and 10V product, and will be available in V (7.3 x. 4.3 x. 2.0 mm), D (7.3 x. 4.3 x. 3.1 mm), X (7.3 x. 4.3 x. 4.3 mm), and E (7.3 x. 6.0 x. 3.8 mm) sizes. Kemet also plans to release the KO Cap in the multiple T510 series design called the T530 series in both X and E sizes.