Akiba of Freaklabs, a Tokyo-based open-source electronics kitmaker, needed to add some 0805 surface-mount capacitors to an existing PCB, so he stacked them up!
super ghetto bulk capacitance hack. my RF amp is more power hungry than i expected…
See the related links below for more of Akiba’s awesome work!
14 thoughts on “SMD Capacitance Hack”
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Not that amazing, we did this at a company I worked for when they printed the boards wrong. Stacked them 2 high and then overmolded. It was a complete mess.
DId that myself last week, with 0402-sized capacitors. No big deal, very simple using a microscope and a good soldering pen.
Did that in two projects before. You can even buy something like that: http://www.newark.com/kemet/c2220c105mar2ctu/capacitor-ceramic-1uf-250v-x7r/dp/79R5751
That’s fine for a prototype. Not at all for production.
Seriously, it’s not clear what values he needed but you can buy 0805 caps in values up to 100 uF. Look at Mouser. Lots of parts from which to choose, all in stock, obtainable overnight.
Highest voltage caps get pretty low voltage, fast. A 100 uF 0805 is 6.3V max (in tantalum). Stacking lower capacitance caps gets you a high capacitance cap with a high voltage rating (and lower ESR, but much higher ESL).
Hmm, stacking things for more efficiency…wonder where that idea came from…. http://www.scaramangashop.co.uk/images/uploads/red-chairs-01_(1).jpg
nice hack. I like it!