Re: MMC cap bank

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>

 > >Beau has been experimenting with RF caps since we were all knee high to a
 > >grasshopper (or less) and is a very respected professional in this area.
 > >PCI, CSI, and Maxwell all use silicone oil in their caps.  Short cuts
 >
 > I don't believe Maxwell uses silicone like everybody else. They somehow
 > even pull off using paper in high rep pulse caps, where everybody else
just
 > uses polypropylene and a compatible oil. My General Atomics caps is full
of
 > isopropyl biphenyl, and my PCI caps are silicone oil, all of which are AC

GA/Maxwell uses Castor Oil in their paper caps (So called Series C Energy
Discharge).. One advantage is that the dielectric constant of castor oil is
in the area of 5, compared to 2.5 for mineral oil, so you get twice as much
C in the same volume. So, you can maybe design a bit more margin into the
cap while keeping the energy density the same.  The white plastic cased caps
from GA/Maxwell are mineral oil and polypropylene, as far as I know... I
can't find my application note which describes it in gory detail.