Safety certified capacitors are placed at a power line input side in order to eliminate noise that builds up primarily in commercial AC power lines.

Safety certified capacitors are usually of the lead type, but the mounted height above the board surface is a problem because it hinders efforts to make low-profile devices and it limits component layout. In addition, because lead type capacitors are through-hole mounted, the lead wires are exposed on the underside of the circuit board. A fixed amount of insulating distance between the exposed lead wires and the metal components of the device is required by safety standards, so this complicates spatial layout within a device.

The new Murata capacitor uses a structure of plate-shaped terminals on a disc-shaped ceramic dielectric placed within a plastic mold to reduce the terminal thickness that is present with lead type capacitors, and this results in a mounted height of 2.5mm or less for the product.

Furthermore, the component format enables reflow surface mount, and there is no longer a need to assure insulating distance at the underside of the board. This advances profile reduction for power supply devices subject to size limitations in compact AV equipment, LED illumination and 1U rack mounted equipment, for which spatial design has been difficult.