KEMET Employees Win Top Honor at Capacitor and Resistor Technology Symposium (CARTS) Europe

GREENVILLE, S.C., Oct. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- KEMET Corporation announced today that three KEMET employees have been honored for a technical paper presented at the 2005 Capacitor and Resistor Technology Symposium (CARTS) Europe held in Prague, Czech Republic, in October 2005. Winning papers were selected by the 2005 CARTS Delegates and Program Committee, and awards were presented at CARTS Europe held September 25-28, 2006, in Bad Homburg, Germany.

CARTS is an annual forum featuring the latest developments in passive technology solutions, test and measurement methods, and applications via symposium presentations, seminars, and exhibits to a network of raw material suppliers, manufacturers, design engineers, and academia.

Co-authors Randy Hahn, Jim Piller, and Dr. Phil Lessner were awarded the 2005 Per-Olof Fagerholt Best Paper Award for their submission, Improved SMT Performance of Tantalum Conductive Polymer Capacitors with Very Low ESR. This paper outlines KEMET's success in using Six Sigma improvement methodologies (DMAIC: define-measure-analyze-improve-control) to reduce SMT shorts by an order of magnitude in conductive polymer tantalum capacitors with ESR as low as 5 mW. It describes the project goals (define phase), new measurement techniques that had to be developed (measure phase), the conceptual model to explain SMT failures (analyze phase), process and material improvements (improve phase), and new control measures put in place (control phase).

"We congratulate our winners on their success and continued pursuit of excellence in capacitor technology," said Per-Olof Loof, KEMET's Chief Executive Officer. "Only two or three tantalum capacitor manufacturers in the world have the technology required to produce capacitors with single-digit ESR levels, leading-edge capacitance and voltage ratings, and outstanding SMT performance. KEMET intends to remain a technology leader in these areas."

KEMET has been an active contributor to CARTS, winning awards for technical submissions numerous times during the symposium's 26-year history, and was an active participant in this year's symposium as well. KEMET's Dr. Yuri Freeman, Principal Scientist, Tantalum Technology, Greenville, South Carolina, presented a technical seminar on Comparative Analysis of Ta, Nb and Nbo Capacitor Performance and Reliability.

Five papers were presented by KEMET scientists during the 2006 symposium: Low-Impedance Ta Capacitors to Serve the Needs of the Electronics Industry, by Randy Hahn and Jonathan Paulsen; Scintillation Testing Reveals Self-Healing in Solid Electrolytic Capacitors, by John Prymak, Paul Staubli, Peter Blais, and Bill Long; Reliability Characterization of Tantalum Capacitors with MnO2 Counter-Electrode, by Jonathan Paulsen; Effects of Thermal Oxide of Ta on Anodic Oxide of Ta, by Dr. Freeman; and Improving Flex Capabilities with Modified MLC Chip Capacitors by Paul Staubli, John Prymak, Peter Blais, and Bill Long.

In addition, two KEMET scientists, Dr. Freeman and Dr. Ralf Deisenhofer, Tantalum Research and Development, Heidenheim, Germany, serve on the CARTS Europe 2006 Program Committee.

KEMET Corporation provides industry-leading, high-performance capacitance solutions, including the world's most complete line of surface-mount capacitor technologies across tantalum, ceramic and solid aluminum dielectrics-along with the world's best quality, delivery and service. KEMET's common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol KEM. Additional information can be found at http://www.kemet.com/.

Contact: Dean W. Dimke Director of Corporate and Marketing Communication 864-228-4448 deandimke@kemet.com