Light weight high temperature polymer film capacitors with dielectric loss lower than polypropylene

The dielectric and high voltage performance of polymethylpentene (PMP) is investigated and compared with biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP) for high power density and high temperature capacitor applications. PMP has a melting temperature that is around 60 A degrees C higher than BOPP, while still maintaining low dielectric loss and high charge-discharge efficiency that are comparable to the latter. Furthermore, PMP is the lightest commercial thermoplastic polymer with density of 0.83 g/cm(3), which is 8 % lower than BOPP (0.9 g/cm(3)). PMP is a promising semicrystalline dielectric material that may replace BOPP for high temperature pulsed power and power conditioning applications.