Measurements of Acoustic Emission Induced by Partial Discharges in Foil-based Capacitors for Their Quality Assessment

− There is a continuous pressure to increase quality of the passive elements at reduction of their production costs. Therefore, present methods of their quality assessment have to be reconsidered to avoid usage of the elements that could break down and lead to serious economical losses. This paper compares results of capacitor tests introduced by the obligatory technical standards and measurements of acoustic emission induced by partial discharges within voids in foil-based capacitors. We suppose that presence of voids within dielectric and foil structures can lead to capacitor damage and can not be detected by measurements of dielectric loss or capacitance only.