Eaton electronics is a power management company focusing on energy-efficient products and services to help customers effectively manage electrical, hydraulic and mechanical power more reliably, efficiently, safely and sustainably.
Distrelec already stocks a wide variety of Eaton products and we’re now excited to be stocking the Eaton range of supercapacitors. These are unique, ultra-high capacitance devices utilizing electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) construction combined with new, high performance materials. This combination of advanced technologies allows Eaton to offer a wide variety of capacitor solutions tailored to specific applications that range from a few microamps for several days to hundreds of amps for seconds.
In this article we are going to take a look at some of the supercapacitor solutions that Eaton offers through Distrelec.
Table of Contents
HS Series
The most popular range of supercapacitors is the Eaton Hybrid Supercapacitors (HS). This HS series offers a new generation of energy storage that combines the benefits of Lithium Ion (Li-ion) batteries with long life and reliability. The HS series offers an increasing energy density up to ten times and comes with a 10 year lifetime guarantee at 20C and 500k cycles (250k for HSL Series).
The HS series itself offers a compact solution with a maximum diameter of 16.5mm and height of 27mm for the HS1625. The supercapacitors are manufactured using Eaton’s new proprietary materials that are environmentally friendly for green power solutions.
Each supercapacitor has two electrodes, one similar to that of a battery and one standard supercapacitor electrode. Consequently, their energy densities are close to those of conventional batteries and ten times higher than standard supercapacitors.
The HS series is suitable for the following industry applications:
- Industrial backup/ride through
- Backup for storage servers
- Water and gas smart meters
- IoT energy storage
- Medical backup power/alarm
- Commercial trucks/containers asset tracking
HV Series
Eaton’s HV series of supercapacitors offer ultra-low resistance for the highest pulse power and power density. The HV family provides energy storage for high power charge and discharge cycling, peak power saving and backup applications.
This combination of advanced technologies allows Eaton to offer a wide variety of capacitor solutions tailored to applications for backup power, pulse power and hybrid power systems.
They can be applied as the sole energy storage or in combination with batteries to optimize cost, life time and run time. System requirements can range from a few microwatts to megawatts.
All products feature low ESR for high power density with environmentally friendly materials for a green power solution. Eaton supercapacitors are maintenance-free with design lifetimes up to 20 years* and operating temperatures down to -40 ° C and up to +85 °C.
The HV family ranges from 1 F to 100 F. and is RoHS compliant, UL registered component and IEC 60079-11 compliant.
The HV series is suitable for the following applications:
- Electric, Gas, Water smart meters
- Controllers
- RF radio power
- Solar capture
- Storage servers
- Pulse power
- Backup power
PHV Series
Eaton’s PHV family of supercapacitors integrates two HV family cells with passive voltage management to reduce parts count and simplify designs. They are commonly used for backup power, or pulse power applications in automotive electronics, industrial systems and utility smart meters.
The PHV series of supercapacitors is suitable for the following applications:
- Pulse Power
- Bridging or hold-up power
TV Series
Eaton’s TV family of supercapacitors operates at higher voltage to reduce the number of cells and size needed in high voltage designs or keep the same number of cells to do more with higher energy storage.
They provide energy storage for high power charge/discharge cycling, peak power shaving and backup power applications. They also provide power to safely shutdown systems and avoid data loss when main power is disconnected.
Eaton’s 3 volt TV supercapacitor cells provides energy storage for backup power, ride through, RF radio transmissions and other pulse power requirements.
The TV products offer a 20% increase in stored energy and peak power density by increasing the operating voltage. Usable energy can increase up to 70%.
This new technology enables higher performance servers, longer operating life or lower cost designs for many industrial electronics.
TV cells are RoHS compliant, UL recognized, and contain no heavy metals.
TV series can be used in the following applications:
- Electric, Gas, Water smart meters
- RF radio pulse power
- Storage server
- Industrial backup / ride through
- Pulse power
- Solar capture
XV Series
Eaton’s XV family of supercapacitor cells provide very high capacitance for peak power, charge/discharge cycling and backup power applications in the hundreds of watts to low kilowatt power systems. They are used in a variety of applications including automotive, medical, aerospace and industrial backup.
300 F and 400 F versions for XV family provides long term power backup and high peak current capability. Slower aging enables longer service life, operation at higher temperatures, or lower initial capacitance than competitors.
Ultra-low ESR (6 mΩ for XV family) increases the amount of power delivered to the load and ensures minimal voltage drop during peak current demand. Compared to the competition, resistance increase with age is greatly reduced.
The XV family’s wide -40 °C to +65 °C (+85 °C with voltage derating) operating temperature range is ideal for harsh industrial environment and field based telecom applications. Long operating life with an achievable operating life of 20-years, the Eaton XV family supercapacitors enable longer end-equipment service life and will not need replacing.
The XV series is suitable for the following applications:
- Hybrid battery or fuel cell systems
- High pulse current applications
- UPS / hold up power
KR & KW Series
Eaton’s KR family of supercapacitors replace button cell batteries (and the battery holder) for real-time clock backup power, and provide ride through for battery operated devices to allow time for battery replacements. The KR has excellent life time in typical 3.6 V systems. The family is RoHS compliant.
High capacitance 5.5 V coin cell supercapacitors in industry standard packages. High capacitance, 0.1 F to 1.5 F, enables critical functions to be continued or completed in a controlled manner during battery swap out or mains fail for systems up to 5.5 V.
The Eaton KR family is available in three industry standard mechanical packages, cylindrical style, horizontal mount and vertical mount, each with six capacitance values from 0.1 F to 1.5 F.
The KW family is available in cylindrical coin cell style with five capacitance values from 0.1 F to 1.0 F. the KW family is fully rated up to 85 °C.
High energy density allows the use of small 11.5m m to 21.5 mm diameter low profile packages with 5 mm to 8.5 mm thickness.
Ultra-low leakage current levels make the Eaton coin cells are ideal for battery powered equipment where loading needs to be minimized to prolong the operating time.
The full line of KR family supercapacitors are RoHS compliant, lead free and present no disposal issues at end of life.
KR & KW series is suitable for the following applications:
- Electric utility meters
- Motor control units
- Solar inverters
- Real-Time Clock (RTC) backup
- Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs)
- Irrigation and water control systems
Conclusion
Supercapacitors have reasonably high energy density compared to rechargeable batteries. In most applications, batteries have far more energy than is required and several drawbacks, including:
- Take too long to charge.
- Do not like to be held fully charged.
- Degrade with shallow discharge – NiCd memory effect.
- Require maintenance or replacement.
The memory effect is too familiar to mobile phone users. With continuous 365 charge/discharge cycles per year, rechargeable batteries require frequent replacement and create environmental issues in addition to increasing life cycle cost.
Supercapacitors are rapidly being adopted as an ideal main power source for in toys, remote monitoring systems, transmitters, lighting and solar traffic signs.
