A major concern in the operation of high voltage capacitors is the failure mode at end of life. While progress has been made in this area at lower voltages, little has changed for high current capacitors operating above 30 kV in steady state and pulsed power applications. Based on a new development at Maxwell Energy Products, Inc., it is now possible to build capacitors that can operate with a high degree of safety at high voltages. The capacitors reach the normal end of life, while avoiding the catastrophic failures, collateral damage, and unscheduled maintenance, associated with the normal failure mode of today's high voltage capacitors. This paper discusses the problem, capacitor failure modes, capacitor designs and describes a solution to the problem of catastrophic high voltage capacitor failures.
