Information on aluminum electrolytic capacitors:
Do you see the multiple round cylinders in red boxes drawn in the image below? In simple terms, these cylindrical metal canisters are capacitors, specifically, aluminum electrolytic capacitors.
Think of them as ultra-fast, short-term rechargeable batteries. While a standard battery takes minutes or hours to charge and discharge, these capacitors can dump and store their entire electrical charge in microseconds.
The boards in the image represent the cutting edge of data center power delivery: stepping down massive 800V DC lines directly to the low voltages (50V, 12V, 6V) demanded by high-power chips.
2 simple reasons they are used:
1. Voltage smoothing: switching power supplies drop voltage by turning transistors on and off hundreds of thousands of times per second. This rapid switching creates a massive amount of electrical noise, causing the voltage to look like a jagged wave rather than a smooth line. Capacitors act as shock absorbers, smoothing out these fluctuations to deliver a steady, continuous stream of clean DC power.
2. Protecting silicon: high-voltage environments are prone to transient voltage spikes. These capacitors basically act as a shield to absorb those sudden surges, helping to protect the sensitive silicon on the chip.
I had already mentioned the names that manufacture them:
Nippon Chemi-Con ($6997.T)
Nichicon ($6996.T)
Rubycon (private)
Vishay Intertechnology ($VSH)
Panasonic Industry ($6752.T)
Yageo ($2327.T)
TDK ($6762.T)
Samwha Electronics ($011230.KS)
Kyocera ($6971.T)
Taiyo Yuden ($6976.T)
But the more interesting part of the supply chain is the manufacturing process, not end product vendors.
Here are some names involved:
> Nippon Kodoshi Corporation ($3891.T): 60% to 80% of the global market share for electrolytic capacitor separator paper.
> Resonac Holdings ($4004.T): A critical supplier of advanced etched aluminum foils for high-capacitance applications.
> Nippon Light Metal ($5703.T): Aluminum foil manufacturer, but a lot of exposure to other areas of their business.
> Xinjiang Joinworld ($600888.SS): The company is a producer of high-purity aluminum and electronic aluminum foil for aluminum electrolytic capacitors.
> Espec Corporation ($6859.T): Capacitor leakage test systems
> Hioki E.E. ($6866.T): Capacitor testing equipment
Funny enough, Xinjiang Joinworld is marked down on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List on the U.S. Homeland Security website, so they cannot directly sell to anyone in the United States. Ouch!
Note: Almost all of these companies have a small business exposure to capacitors. It is your responsibility to research in more depth. This is only guidance on companies involved.
I will be sharing info on the aluminum electrolytic capacitors supply chain.
> Names
> Process
> What to look out for, etc.
Do NOT confuse these with MLCCs.