Patent ID: 11908628
Assignee: MURATA MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A multilayer ceramic electronic component comprising:
a multilayer body including a plurality of stacked ceramic layers and including a first major surface and a second major surface opposite to each other in a height direction, a first side surface and a second side surface opposite to each other in a width direction orthogonal or substantially orthogonal to the height direction, and a first end surface and a second end surface opposite to each other in a length direction orthogonal or substantially orthogonal to the height direction and the width direction;
a first internal electrode layer on at least one of the plurality of stacked ceramic layers and exposed at the first end surface;
a second internal electrode layer on at least one of the plurality of ceramic layers and exposed at the second end surface;
a first external electrode connected to the first internal electrode layer and located on the first end surface; and
a second external electrode connected to the second internal electrode layer and located on the second end surface; wherein
the first and second external electrodes include an underlying electrode layer, a lower plating layer on the underlying electrode layer at the first end surface and the second end surface, respectively, and an upper plating layer on the lower plating layer;
the underlying electrode layer includes a thin film electrode including at least one selected from Ni, Cr, Cu, and Ti;
at least a portion of the lower plating layer is connected to corresponding ones of the first internal electrode layer and the second internal electrode layer;
the lower plating layer is a Cu plating layer;
the lower plating layer includes a lower layer region located closer to the multilayer body and an upper layer region located between the lower layer region and the upper plating layer; and
the Cu plating layer in the lower layer region has a metal grain diameter smaller than that of the Cu plating layer in the upper layer region.