TABLE OF CONTENTS The slow-wave causal model is built on the realization that a multilayer ceramic capacitor is a periodically loaded lossy transmission line [15]. The unloaded transmission line is formed by the two vertical terminals of the capacitor (assuming horizontal plate orientation) by removing the capacitor plates but leaving the dielectric material in place. This vertically oriented unloaded transmission line in itself is already lossy: the terminals have finite resistance, and the dielectric material has finite dielectric loss tangent. It is also known that causality dictates capacitance to change with frequency in proportion to the dielectric loss tangent. In an MLCC part, the large capacitance is achieved by interdigitated capacitor plates, attached in an alternating pattern to the opposite terminals. These capacitor plates form a set of periodically arranged lossy transmission lines, attached orthogonally to the capacitor terminals. As it will be shown, the multitude of capacitor plates will not only increase the total capacitance of the part, but it also behaves like a dielectric material with an increased loss tangent and additional frequency dependence of capacitance. The effective loss tangent is a mix of the loss tangent of the original dielectric material and the resistive loss of the capacitor plates.
If we properly assign the dimensions and material constants, or if we perform a blind optimization of these parameters to match the measured behavior of a capacitor, we expect all of the major features will be captured simultaneously without the need to independently...
