An obsession with capacitors

I subscribe to Quartz, which they say is:

… intelligent journalism that’s built for users first. We help our audience see around corners, navigate disruption in their industries, build fulfilling careers, broaden their views of the world, and enjoy lives rich with culture.

Our coverage of the global economy is organized around core obsessions—topics and questions of seismic importance to business professionals. These are the issues that energize our newsroom, and we invite you to obsess about them along with us.

I really like Quartz. The topics are interesting and the writing is very good. Ever weekday, and on Saturdays, I get a “Daily Brief,” which includes news, and every weekday, I get a Quartz “Obsession,” which is a deeper dive into a particular topic. Today’s obsession is capacitors.

Why capacitors? Well, apparently, there is a worldwide shortage of capacitors, especially multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs). How bad is it? According to Quartz, the shortage is expected to continue through at least 2020.

This “obsession” is filled with a bunch of interesting facts about capacitors. For example, did you know that approximately 3 trillion MLCCs were manufactured in 2017, and there are 1,000 MLCCs in an iPhone X, and 9,200 in a Tesla Model 3?

Some of the reporting isn’t quite technically correct. For example, they write:

Capacitors can also be used to filter electrical frequencies. (That part’s a bit complicated.) If you have a tweeter and a subwoofer in your speaker, capacitors are part of untangling the frequencies for each. They can also block electrical noise that you don’t want going anywhere, like that created by a charger.

It’s that last sentence that I’d take issue with.

There are also sections on the history of capacitors and why there’s currently a shortage. TLDR: More devices than ever are being controlled by electronic devices, which require capacitors, and while capacitors are theoretically very simple devices, satisfying the huge demand for them isn’t quite so simple.