K-TEM: KEMET Thermal Expectancy Model

Metallized film capacitor market is driven by a wide range of applications, which demand higher current capability, higher working temperature and higher lifetime performance while maintaining small sizes. Temperature is an important factor, and it is often the cause of failures and reduced life. For this reason, capacitors designed to operate at high current and high temperature require special attention. Modeling and 3D FEM simulations can be used as a powerful and accurate medium to evaluate local temperature raises and maximum hot spot values. This paper presents how Modeling and 3D FEM has been integrated in a new easy-to-use web tool, first to the market, that runs a finite element analysis for the desired components based on costumer defined inputs, to match the real application environment. K-TEM allows to have a precise and fast estimation of the thermal behavior of KEMET metallized film capacitors under several possible boundary conditions and configurations.