Research progress on multilayer ceramic capacitors for energy storage: review

As a crucial component of electronic devices, MLCC achieves high capacitance values within a limited volume due to its unique structure. It also plays a significant role in the field of energy storage because of its excellent electrical characteristics. Furthermore, the outstanding performance of MLCC supports the development of high-performance, highly integrated electronic devices and demonstrates great potential in the field of energy storage and conversion. The design and innovation of MLCC have become a research hotspot for improving energy density and power density. By optimizing the material formula and improving the electrode structure design, significant increases in energy density can be achieved. Additionally, with its low ESR and low ESL, MLCC exhibits excellent power density characteristics, making it an ideal choice for high-frequency circuits and pulse power supplies. Despite significant progress in both areas of enhancement, the limited capacity and inadequate stability of energy storage MLCCs remain key obstacles hindering their widespread application. This review introduces the research status and development challenges of multilayer ceramic capacitor energy storage. First, it reviews the structure and energy storage principle of ceramic capacitors. Second, it examines the main types of energy storage multilayer ceramic capacitors from both lead-based and lead-free perspectives. Then by discussing influencing factors and methods to adjust energy storage performance, current research results on multilayer ceramic capacitors are described along with specific application scenarios for energy storage MLCCs. Finally, this analysis explores development challenges and potential future applications for industrializing lab-scale small energy storage MLCCs.