Shorted trimmable composite multilayer capacitor and method

摘要

A shorted trimmable composite multilayer capacitor (10) is initially shorted, but can be easily and efficiently unshorted and then functional trimmed while in a circuit. The capacitor (10) has a capacitor body (12) defined by a plurality of interleaved first and second electrodes (14, 16) spaced apart by ceramic. A trimmable outermost electrode (14') is situated on the capacitor body (12) and is capable of depletion by trimming for particularly selecting a capacitance associated with the capacitor (10). First and second terminations (24, 26) are disposed at first and second ends of the capacitor body (12) for connecting the capacitor (10) to a circuit. The first termination (24) is connected to the first electrodes (14), while the second termination is connected to the second electrode (16). Importantly, an interconnect bar (15) is disposed on the capacitor body (12) for connecting the outermost electrode (14') to the second termination (26) to thereby short the first and second terminations (24, 26). After the capacitor (10) has been placed in a circuit, the interconnect bar (15) can easily be eliminated to thereby unshort the capacitor (10), and the capacitor (10) can then be functionally trimmed via trimming the trimmable outermost electrode (14').