Ceramic capacitor

A multilayer ceramic capacitor, or MLCC, is the most common electronic part in the world. It's a tiny tan or gray block, often a millimeter or two long, with metal caps on each end. It stores electric charge between metal plates separated by an insulator, and can release it instantly.

It's built from barium titanate, a ceramic that stores charge very well. The powder is mixed with binders into a slurry and cast into very thin sheets, some under a micrometer thick. A paste of nickel powder is printed onto each sheet as a pattern of electrodes. Hundreds of sheets are stacked, offset so alternate electrodes reach the left or the right end, and pressed into a solid block. The block is diced into thousands of small chips, which are fired at over 1,200 °C in a low-oxygen atmosphere so the nickel doesn't oxidize. Copper paste is applied to the ends and fired, joining all the electrodes on each side. Finally the ends are plated with nickel and tin for soldering.

On the main board, timing controller board, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module and power supply board, MLCCs sit beside chips, steadying their power and filtering out noise. The world makes trillions of them a year.