Exxelia Ohmcraft Resistors serve Neurodiagnostics of Newborn Patients

ROCHESTER, N.Y., January 4, 2021—Neurodiagnostic tools are used every day in neonatal critical care units to monitor, diagnose and treat impairments in newborns.


This type of equipment successfully detects disorders in the brain, nerves and muscles that have the potential to impact the child’s long-term health. To ensure the reliability of this testing, global leaders in the manufacturing of neurodiagnostic technologies leverage Exxelia Ohmcraft’s custom, high voltage surface mount resistors in their equipment.

Exxelia Ohmcraft has the ability to provide high voltage resistors in a small form factor, which is essential for the smaller multi-channel patient monitoring equipment utilized in hospitals today. Additionally, the low noise of Exxelia Ohmcraft’s resistors is critical to eliminating interference that could impact the biosignals being transmitted from the newborn patient to the monitoring equipment.

“By utilizing our resistors, leading neurodiagnostics manufacturers have been able to develop cutting-edge monitoring and testing solutions that improve outcomes and enhance the care of the youngest and most vulnerable patients,” said Eric Van Wormer, Vice President of Exxelia Ohmcraft. “We are proud to partner with many of the world’s top medical device manufacturers in the design of many products that are crucial to the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of so many diseases and conditions.”

Exxelia Ohmcraft’s technology utilizes the proprietary Micropen electronic printing system to “print” precise, narrow, serpentine lines with resistive ink on a ceramic substrate, producing higher performance resistors over a wider range of values on a smaller surface area than is possible with conventional film resistor technology.

# # #

Published on 04 Jan 2021 by Rebecca Charles

What is a capacitor ?

▲ WHAT IS A CAPACITOR ?   Definition from the dictionnary: « Capacitor »: Device able to accumulate charges and to relaunch them in a very short time.    > See our capacitors in catalog    What it really is: It's an electrical component made of 2 conductive armatures (called electrodes) separated by an isolating layer. Its main property is to store electrical charges on its armatures. There is a direct link between the voltage put on the capacitor and the value of the charge at the armatures This coefficient C, the capacitance, is the value caracterizing mathematically the capacitors. As we can identifie a direct link between U and I in the capacitor we can caracterize it as a dipole this way: 3 main dipoles : In the physical reality:   Contacts with the PCB (terminations) + Other internal contact suh as the metallic contacts, or the physical internal resistivity of the used materials. → Resistance in the circuit   Other losses due mainly to the leads → inductive effect in the circuit. Example of possible caracterization: That’s why the Esr is always written « at a certain frequency »  which should be the resonnance frequency. This is also why the capacitors have frequency optimal ranges. The higher the resonance frequency is, the higher the frequencies are withstanded by the capacitor.   In terms of energy Efficient energy is Ec.   In reality E= Ec+Er+Ei with: Ec = Energy due to the ideal capacitor Er = Energy to the ESR Ei = Energy due to the leakage.   So Er and Ei are caracterized by heating (Joule effect). So even if that’s not always a key paramter, the lower the esr the better it is for the circuit.                                                                                                                                                                               If the capacitor is polarized : If the capacitor is not polarized : > See our capacitors in catalog   ▲ MAIN CARACTERISTICS 1) Voltages (V) 2) Capacitance of Capacitor   3) Capacitance / volume 4) Tan Delta / ESR   5) Price of the function Whatever the function, the price of capacitors is important ! A cheap function does not mean a cheap product: 10 caps at 10€ is less expensive than 1 cap at 50€ …    > See our capacitors in catalog   ▲ FINAL OVERVIEW   Technology                                         Benefits of capacitors                          Constrains  Aluminum The least expensive The highest energy density Polarized Difficulties in storage High ESR and tan Delta Lowest temperature range  Ceramic   Ideal for high frequencies The biggest range of values (CAPA voltage)   Highest Price of the functions Low energy density Low values of capacitance  Film Highest ripple curents Highest voltages Lowest ESR and tan Delta Most expensive Lowest energy density High price of the function  Tantalum Lower ESR than aluminum, Good energy density and price of the function Polarized Solid can burn High ESR and tan Delta       > See our capacitors in catalog