Component and use of a component

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12033773-B2
Application number	US-202017612337-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 26, 2020
Priority date	Jun 3, 2019
Publication date	Jul 9, 2024
Grant date	Jul 9, 2024

Abstract

A component having an active volume, the active volume not being centrally positioned along a height of the component, and/or not being centrally positioned along a width of the component. Use of the component is also disclosed. Further aspects relate to a use of the component and to a component. The component can be an NTC thermistor or a PTC thermistor or a temperature measurement element. Use of the component for monitoring a temperature of a battery or in a vehicle is also disclosed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A component, comprising:
a first side face;
a second side face, a width of the component extending from the first side face to the second side face of the component;
a bottom side;
a top side, a height of the component extending from the bottom side to the top side of the component;
a plurality of inner electrodes, at least a pair of inner electrodes in the plurality of electrodes configured to form an active volume of the component,
wherein the active volume is not arranged centrally over the width of the component,
wherein owing to the non-central arrangement of the active volume, a thermal time constant of the component is reduced,
wherein the active volume is formed either by
(i) overlap regions of adjacent inner electrodes of opposite polarity, wherein inner electrodes that are adjacent to one another in a stacking direction overlap with one another in at least one overlap region and the active volume of the component is formed by the at least one overlap region of the inner electrodes, or
(ii) a region which is situated between two inner electrodes of opposite polarity, wherein the two inner electrodes are arranged in the same plane and do not touch each other, wherein the region between the two inner electrodes forms the active volume of the component,

wherein the active volume is arranged in a left-hand-side region, which extends from the first side face as far as a width of not more than 30% of the width, and/or in a right-hand-side region, which extends from the second side face as far as a width of at least 70% of the width,
wherein, in the width direction, a central region, which is free of inner electrodes, is arranged between the left-hand-side region and the right-hand-side region and directly adjoins the left-hand-side region and the right-hand-side region in each case, and
wherein the component is a ceramic multilayer component.

2. The component according to claim 1 ,
wherein the active volume is arranged close to a side face of the component,
and/or
wherein the active volume is arranged close to a bottom side of the component,
and/or
wherein the active volume is arranged close to a top side of the component.

3. The component according to claim 1 ,
wherein the active volume is arranged in a lower region between the bottom side and a height of 30% of the height and/or in an upper region between a height of 70% of the height and the top side.

4. The component according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the inner electrodes of the component is a floating electrode.

5. The component according to claim 1 , wherein the active volume has a plurality of partial volumes which are arranged symmetrically.

6. The component according to claim 1 , wherein at least one inner electrode has two parts which are separated from one another by a gap which runs perpendicularly to the height and to the width of the component.

7. The component according to claim 1 , wherein the active volume makes up less than 30% of a total volume of the component.

8. The component according to claim 1 ,
wherein the component has an outer electrode which is arranged on a third side face of the component,
wherein at least one of the inner electrodes is connected to the outer electrode,
wherein the outer electrode partially overlaps the inner electrode that is connected to the outer electrode, and the inner electrode that is connected to the outer electrode projects beyond a region which is overlapped by the outer electrode.

9. The component according to claim 1 ,
wherein the component is configured for surface mounting.

10. The component according to claim 1 ,
wherein the component is a negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistor or a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) thermistor.

11. The component according to claim 1 , wherein the component is a temperature measuring element.

12. The use of a component according to claim 1 , for monitoring a temperature of a battery.

13. The use of a component according to claim 1 , for monitoring a temperature in a vehicle.

14. A component, comprising:
a first side face;
a second side face, a width of the component extending from the first side face to the second side face of the component;
a bottom side;
a top side, a height of the component extending from the bottom side to the top side of the component;
a plurality of inner electrodes, at least a pair of inner electrodes in the plurality of electrodes configured to form an active volume of the component,
wherein the active volume of the component is not arranged centrally over the height of the component,
wherein the active volume is not arranged centrally over a width of the component,
wherein owing to the non-central arrangement of the active volume, a thermal time constant of the component is reduced,
wherein the active volume is formed either by
(i) overlap regions of adjacent inner electrodes of opposite polarity, wherein inner electrodes that are adjacent to one another in a stacking direction overlap with one another in at least one overlap region and the active volume of the component is formed by the at least one overlap region of the inner electrodes, or
(ii) a region which is situated between two inner electrodes of opposite polarity, wherein the two inner electrodes are arranged in the same plane and do not touch each other, wherein the region between the two inner electrodes forms the active volume of the component,

wherein the active volume is arranged in a left-hand-side region, which extends from the first side face as far as a width of not more than 30% of the width, and/or in a right-hand-side region, which extends from the second side face as far as a width of at least 70% of the width,
wherein, in the width direction, a central region, which is free of inner electrodes, is arranged between the left-hand-side region and the right-hand-side region and directly adjoins the left-hand-side region and the right-hand-side region in each case and
wherein the component is a ceramic multilayer component.

15. A component, comprising:
a first side face;
a second side face, a width of the component extending from the first side face to the second side face of the component;
a bottom side;
a top side, a height of the component extending from the bottom side to the top side of the component;
a plurality of inner electrodes, at least a pair of inner electrodes in the plurality of electrodes configured to form an active volume of the component;
a third side face which is covered by a first outer electrode; and
a fourth side face which is covered by a second outer electrode, a length of the component extending from the third side face to the fourth side face,
wherein the width, the length and the height of the component are perpendicular to each other,
wherein the active volume is not arranged centrally over a width of the component,
wherein owing to the non-central arrangement of the active volume, a thermal time constant of the component is reduced,
wherein the active volume is formed either by
(i) overlap regions of adjacent inner electrodes of opposite polarity, wherein inner electrodes that are adjacent to one another in a stacking direction overlap with one another in at least one overlap region and the active volume of the component is formed by the at least one overlap region of the inner electrodes, or
(ii) a region which is situated between two inner electrodes of opposite polarity, wherein the two inner electrodes are arranged in the same plane and do not touch each other, wherein the region between the two inner electrod

Assignees

• Tdk Electronics Ag

Inventors

• Hofrichter Alfred

Classifications

• H01C7/18

  comprising a plurality of layers stacked between terminals · CPC title

• H01C7/042

  mainly consisting of inorganic non-metallic substances (H01C7/041 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01C1/1413 Primary

  Terminals or electrodes formed on resistive elements having negative temperature coefficient · CPC title

• G01K7/22

  the element being a non-linear resistance, e.g. thermistor (G01K7/26 takes precedence) · CPC title

• Y02E60/10

  Energy storage using batteries · CPC title