When you want to talk about cool new components, you are probably thinking about chips or, these days, even modules. Passive components like resistors, capacitors, and inductors are a solved problem, right? [Darshill Patel] begs to differ. There is still innovation happening in the passive market, and he highlights some of the recent advances.
There are thick-film resistors that don’t need lead, for example. There are also supercapacitor modules with very low ESR. For inductors, at least one manufacturer is moving away from traditional wire loops and using flat wire windings instead. These have a larger cross-section, which reduces unwanted resistance. In addition, it offers more cooling area for heat dissipation. Magnetic Eyelash Box
Of course, passive components have never been as simple as people think. Picking a capacitor’s value is only half the battle. You also need to consider the material to optimize how it works in your design. Wirewound resistors are also inductors unless you get special non-inductive ones that use special wiring techniques to cancel much of the parasitic inductance.
It shows that you can never stop learning about even the simplest components. We are still waiting to figure out what we want to do with a memristor. While tiny surface mount components are good for some assembly reasons, they also have helped reduce unwanted component effects.
“… unless you get special non-inductive ones that use special wiring techniques to cancel much of the parasitic inductance.”
Why not just call it by name – bifilar winding?
Not exactly new anymore, but aluminum-polymer capacitors have gotten cheap. Thanks to their lower ESR you can often accomplish the same with smaller / less capacitors than traditional aluminum electrolytics.
Lead is not the satan the bureaucrats want it to be.
No real need to force upon us edible resistors or edible piezoceramics.
Unless I’m missing something, I’m not seeing the “news” on this one… other companies had lead-free thick-film resistors out years ago (Yageo, for example, has a line… others exist). And flat wire being used in inductors? That’s a (many) decades-old option.
Darshil’s article was just announcing new product lines… not innovations or advancements. To couch it as anything other is a stretch, at best.
Only real innovation will be superconductors.
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