Capacitor Forum

Capacitors in Modern Power Electronics – Design, Reliability, Sustainability
Saturday March 21 2026
Prior to APEC 2026
Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center
San Antonio, TX 78205

Welcome to the PSMA Capacitor Committee Workshop 2026

The PSMA Capacitor Committee, in cooperation with IEEE PELS, warmly invites you to the next Capacitor Workshop, which will take place on Saturday, March 21, 2026, at the Henry B. González Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. This workshop has become a well-established pre-event of APEC week and is recognized as one of the central gatherings for designers, manufacturers, researchers, and users of capacitors.

Following successful workshops in Anaheim, San Antonio, Houston, we are excited to present another high-level program in 2026, bringing together the state of the art in technology, the latest research results, and practical application insights. Whether you are a power electronics designer, component purchaser, researcher, or end user, this workshop offers deep technical knowledge, inspiring perspectives, and valuable networking opportunities.

Why This Workshop is Unique?

Capacitors are indispensable in modern power electronics – from DC/DC converters and inverters to EMI filters. At the same time, the demands for lifetime, reliability, sustainability, and compactness are constantly rising. The Capacitor Workshop 2026 addresses exactly these challenges:

• State of the Art: Technical presentations from leading experts in industry and academia.
• Hands-On Focus: Live demonstrations and measurement setups showcasing real capacitor behavior.
• Networking: Engage with international colleagues, manufacturers, and users in an open setting.
• Synergy: Benefit from joint live demonstrations with the parallel Power Magnetics Workshop, enabling attendees to explore both critical areas of passive components.

A highlight of the event is our lunch session with live demonstrations, where attendees can experience capacitor and magnetic components in real-world applications – a unique opportunity to directly connect theory and practice.

The 2026 agenda will once again feature world-class speakers. Planned presentations include, but are not limited to:

• Electrolytic Capacitor Technology in Multilevel Inverters
• Capacitor Selection for Resonant Converter Design
• 3 Days to 30 Seconds Capacitor Array Design
• Modeling and Validation for Class-2 MLCCs
• Lifetime Analysis of Electrolytics Including Mission Profiles
• Designing for Environmental Compatibility – Towards Sustainable Power Electronics
• Why Capacitors Do What They Do
• Switched-Capacitor Based Topologies and Circuit Techniques for High-Performance Power Conversion
• …

The program spans practical design approaches, simulation and modeling techniques, and forward-looking topics such as sustainability and lifetime prediction.

Learn – Experience – Connect

The Capacitor Workshop is more than a lecture series. It is a platform for exchange and inspiration:

• Technical Sessions: In-depth presentations from manufacturers, universities, and end users offering knowledge straight from the source.
• Panel Discussions: Engage directly with the speakers and discuss your questions live on stage.
• Live Demonstrations: Unique hands-on showcases during the breaks.
• Networking Zones: Ample opportunities for conversation – over breakfast, lunch, or at the end-of-day networking session.

Who Should Attend?

The workshop is aimed at anyone involved in designing, specifying, or applying capacitors – from beginners to seasoned experts:

• Power electronics designers
• Component and system manufacturers
• Test and measurement specialists
• Academic researchers and students
• Users from automotive, industrial, and renewable energy sectors

Whether you want to learn about selecting the right component, explore new simulation techniques, or connect with leading industry experts – this is the event for you.

Your Benefits

• Gain cutting-edge knowledge for your daily work
• Practical tips for better and more efficient designs
• Direct access to leading manufacturers and experts
• Insights into current research trends and emerging technologies
• Added value through the close link with the Magnetics Workshop

Don’t miss this opportunity to expand your knowledge, spark new ideas, and become part of a unique global network.

We look forward to welcoming you on March 21, 2026, in San Antonio!

2026 Workshop Partners:

Dear friends of the PSMA,

The pandemic period has had a great impact on us all. There have been many uncertainties and challenges but also new opportunities to stay connected and share knowledge. The PSMA Capacitor Workshop is a forum designed to share knowledge, to network, and to exchange ideas and information with others in the industry. Over the past five years, the workshop has addressed a wide variety of topics and technologies with a balance between practical content delivered by leading capacitor manufacturers and a view of technology advances offered by worldwide renowned universities on future capacitor technologies and development. Unfortunately, with a heavy heart, I am sorry to inform you that we have decided to cancel the 2023 Capacitor Workshop. We have set our quality standards very high but because of circumstances we could not achieve these in time for APEC 2023.

Nevertheless, we will not completely disappear from the scene. Working with the PSMA Magnetics Committee our popular demonstrations will be included at the 2023 Power Magnetics @ High Frequency Workshop.

Capacitor experts will participate in the workshop to showcase some new and emerging technologies and applications and will be available to answer your questions. Topics will include How Capacitors Influence the Performance of a Flyback Converter, How More Data Helps You in Understanding Capacitors, and Different E-Caps Technologies and Where You Can Use Them. These and other planned demonstrations together with a full agenda of technical presentations await you at the 2023 Power Magnetics @ High Frequency Workshop. I encourage you to register and benefit by increasing your knowledge and awareness.

The PSMA Capacitor Technical Committee will be working to organize a great Workshop at APEC 2024 with a full agenda of exciting and interesting topics by outstanding Presenters and Technical Demonstrations that will meet and surpass previous Capacitor Workshops. 

Stay tuned.

Frank Puhane, Capacitor Workshop Chair
 

    
"How Materials and Environmental Effects Influence Capacitor Performance"

The PSMA Capacitor Committee and IEEE PELS held the fifth annual pre-APEC Capacitor Workshop "How Materials and Environmental Effects Influence Capacitor Performance" on Saturday March 19, 2022 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, TX. The workshop participants and presenters from around the world came together for the program which included 14 presentations and 4 demonstration tables where experts showed many applications and measurement methods. The 2022 Workshop was successful and notable in that we were finally able to meet our customers, colleagues and friends in-person again after holding virtual workshops in 2020 and 2021.

After breakfast in the Demonstration Area, the Workshop began with a keynote presentation "The Next Decade Capacitor Requirements" from Tomas Zednicek, President of EPCI - European Passive Components Institute, who discussed the future of capacitor technologies with a special focus on materials, reliability and sustainability. This was followed by a presentation by William Greenbank from Centre for Industrial Electronics (CIE), University of Southern Denmark, who provided insight into the latest academic research on capacitor materials for the green transition. Frank Puhane, Würth Elektronik, rounded out the first session with a summary of the differences for Class 1/Class 2 MLCCs with a special look at the terminations.

The second session focused on Electrolyte and Tantalum Capacitors. Stephan Menzel from CapXon showed aluminum e-cap solutions for applications with demanding environmental conditions including increased operating temperatures or vibrations where designing a power supply requires a bulk capacitor to ensure good performance. Daniel West from Kyocera-AVX presented an overview of different options and trends to select the right bulk capacitor with a focus on reliability. When the application requires the highest possible volume capacitance, the solution favors tantalum capacitors, and it was a great honor to have Philip Lessner, CTO of KEMET, to guide us through the world of tantalum capacitors. In the final presentation of the morning, Nihal Kularatna from the University of Waikato explained how Supercapacitors could be used for renewable energy and DC micro grid applications. The session concluded with a panel discussion including many of the morning's presenters.

After this wealth of information, it was time for a joint lunch with attendees from the concurrent Power Magnetics @ High Frequency Workshop in the demonstration area. Workshop participants were able to visit the demonstrations from both workshops, discuss the morning program with the presenters and other workshop attendees, and to network with friends and colleagues.

Building on the technologies, trends and selection procedures that had been reviewed in the morning sessions, the first afternoon session focused on the influences of environmental conditions on capacitor applications. This session included not only how temperature and humidity affect capacitors performance, but also the impact of other influences such as the AC voltage and the packaging.  Frank Puhane showed how the different capacitor technologies behave under temperature influences and Philip Lessner explained how capacitors behave in a high humidity environment. Since the characteristics of MLCCs will change not only through DC bias, but also through AC bias, the session concluded with presentations by two well-known experts on capacitors presenting on this topic. John Bultitude from KEMET gave us insight into the MLCC rating for AC Applications and Douglas C. Hopkins from North Carolina State University then went on to discuss packaging for higher AC voltages and future trends in high power converters.

The final technical presentation session focused on the measurement and characterization of capacitors. Measurement and characterization should always be considered together since how the capacitors are measured is crucial for making comparisons. Therefore, Jon Izkue Rodriguez from Würth Elektronik showed how to interpret data sheets and how different components are measured. This topic was further demonstrated in a related demonstration station. High power converters, as described by Douglas C. Hopkins, use DC link capacitors which should have a very low parasitic inductance (ESL). Measuring the ESL can be a challenge and Ronald Alexander from Zurich Instruments presented on how to accomplish this. The final presentation, provided by Marcus Sonst from Rohde & Schwarz, was on how to determine the aging in an AC/DC flyback application using an oscilloscope.

The information-packed day concluded with a joint Capacitor and Magnetics Rap Session moderated by Alexander Gerfer, CTO of Würth Elektronik. The panel members Douglas Hopkins, Philip Lessner and Tomas Zedineck representing Capacitors and Mike Arasim, Fair Rite Products Corporation; Alex Hanson,University of Texas at Austin; and Chema Molina, Frenetic representing Magnetics had very interesting and exciting discussions on the topic of selection, sustainability and applications of passive components.

Many thanks to Pierre Lohrber who has led the organizing effort for all of the PSMA/PELS Capacitor Workshops starting with the first workshop in 2018 and has now moved on to new opportunities. Also, a big thank you to all presenters: Tomas Zednieck, William Greenback, Frank Puhane, Stephan Menzel, Daniel West, Phil Lessner, Nihal Kularatna, John Baltitude, Douglas Hopkins, Jon Izkue Rodriguez, Ronald Alexander and Marcus Sonst.

We hope to see you and many more at our next Capacitor Workshop being planned for March 18, 2023 in conjunction with APEC 2023 in Orlando, Florida. More details regarding the agenda for the 2023 Capacitor Workshop as well as registration information for the workshop will become available on this page in the coming months.

Provided by members of the Capacitor Workshop Organizing Committee:
Frank Puhane, Wurth Electronics
Fred Weber, Future Technology Worldwide