grain boundary barrier-layer capacitor

A grain boundary barrier-layer capacitor (GBBLC) is a type of capacitor that utilizes ceramic materials with poor electrical conductivity to store or generate electrical energy. These materials are known as dielectrics.1

In a GBBLC, the ceramic material is composed of small crystals, or grains, that are randomly oriented and meet at surfaces called grain boundaries. For GBBLCs, conductive films or grain cores are created through specific processing, and then the grain boundaries are oxidized to form thin, resistive layers. This structure results in very high apparent dielectric constants, ranging from 50,000 to 100,000. However, these capacitors have low dielectric breakdown strengths due to the thinness of the barrier layers.21