Aging and DC breakdown characteristics of insulating stearic acid films

The authors report the results of studies on stearic acid films deposited by thermal evaporation in vacuum, which is commonly used in industry. The studies included the examination of the effects of aging stearic acid films in a humid environment and under vacuum. Electrical breakdown characteristics of capacitors with a stearic acid dielectric were measured under ambient conditions. Capacitors aged in vacuum were tested in situ as well. The preliminary results indicate that there was no significant change in breakdown fields for specimens aged for about 200 h.<>