Cracking of ceramic capacitors has long been a concern in PCB manufacturing. It is often a result of board stress due to thermal cycling, board flexure, or pick-and-place assembly. As the ceramic capacitor is inherently rigid and non-elastic, any bending of the PC board or excessive force applied to the capacitor will create stress which can be transmitted through the solder joint and directly to the ceramic body. It often originates at the edge of the termination band closest the substrate, and subsequently propagates through the body of the capacitor at a high angle or in some cases to the opposing edge of the same termination band. If the crack crosses internal electrodes originating from both terminated ends of the capacitor, there will be a measureable loss in capacitance and a short circuit can ensue. On this slide, the graph on the right illustrates capacitance performance during a board flexure test. As shown, when the capacitor is cracked there is a dramatic drop in measured capacitance. Flex cracks provide an ingress for both moisture and contaminants, promoting a short circuit within the capacitor. This condition will lead to a catastrophic failure of the device.