KEMET Addresses Critical Applications with Flexible Tin/Lead Termination System


Greenville, South Carolina - KEMET Corporation (NYSE Amex: KEM), a leading manufacturer of tantalum, ceramic, aluminum, film, paper and electrolytic capacitors, today announced the addition of tin/lead end metallization to its Flexible Termination product lines.

KEMET's Flexible Termination system is successful in addressing concerns for more flex-robust and reliable products in commercial and automotive applications. This proven technology provides superior flex performance and improved reliability while minimizing the risk of a catastrophic and potentially costly failure event. By integrating tin/lead end metallization into KEMET's Flexible Termination products, customers in markets with high reliability requirements will realize the same benefits.

"KEMET's Flexible Tin/Lead Termination system allows us to offer a broad range of flex crack mitigation products for a new group of critical applications," said Corey Antoniades, KEMET Technical Marketing Manager, Ceramics. "As the bulk of the electronics industry moves towards RoHS compliance, KEMET will continue to develop and provide tin/lead terminated products and will ensure customers have a stable and long-term source of supply."

Typical applications include circuits with a direct battery or power source connection, critical and safety relevant circuits without integrated current limitation, and any application that is subject to high levels of board flexure or temperature cycling. Examples include raw power input side filtering (power plane/bus), high current applications and circuits that cannot be fused to open.

KEMET's tin/lead end metallization process is designed to meet a 5% minimum lead content and is now available on KEMET's Flexible Termination (FT-CAP), Flexible Termination with Floating Electrode (FF-CAP) and new High Voltage Flexible Termination (HV FT-CAP) product lines.

More Information on the Flexible Termination System

KEMET's Flexible Termination system utilizes a conductive silver epoxy between the base metal and nickel barrier layers of KEMET's standard termination system in order to establish pliability while maintaining
terminal strength, solderability and electrical performance. This
technology was developed in order to address the primary failure mode of MLCCs-flex cracks, which are typically the result of excessive shear stresses produced during board flexure or thermal cycling. Flexible termination technology directs board flex stress away from the ceramic body and into the termination area, therefore mitigating flex cracks which can result in low IR or short circuit failures.

About KEMET

KEMET's common stock is listed on the NYSE: Amex under the symbol "KEM." At the Investor Relations section of our web site at www.KEMET.com/IR, users may subscribe to KEMET news releases and find additional information about our Company. KEMET applies world class service and quality to deliver industry leading, high performance capacitance solutions to its customers around the world and offers the world's most complete line of surface mount and through-hole capacitor technologies across tantalum, ceramic, film, aluminum, electrolytic, and paper dielectrics. Additional information about KEMET can be found at www.kemet.com.

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