Alternate Thinking

Extended lead-times and component shortages are continuing to cause issues within the electronics industry. Inventories are depleting, and components are becoming ever-increasingly hard to source. MLCC’s, one of the industry’s most heavily utilised commodity products, have been hit especially hard.



With no silver lining in sight for these problems, it may be time to consider what alternative options are available to you. Whether it is a redesign or a replacement, you may have more choice than you think. Charcroft can source alternatives from a part number, product description, NATO stock number or release specification. Alongside these more ‘direct’ alternatives, Charcroft also have the know-how to be able to think outside the box with what we can offer. Through reviewing the BOM, we can advise engineers if the MLCC they require could actually be replaced with a smaller option, as downsizing the case size does not always have a negative impact on the dielectric.

At design stage, MLCC’s can even be replaced by Polymer caps - there are a number of factors which need to be in alignment for this to work - capacitance, voltage, ESR, frequency, leakage current, size, and qualifications – but meeting these specific conditions could provide a solution to your problem..

In these challenging times for passives components, send Charcroft your problem parts to offer alternatives or to help you source - let us show you what we can do...... Charcroft - Challenge Accepted!