Many electronic circuits use capacitors for charge buffering and timing applications.
The sudden exposure of the capacitor to high temperature produces large temperature gradients in the capacitor, resulting in high stresses. Stress cracking results from the inability of the MLCC to absorb these stresses and is aided by manufacturing defects like delaminations, voids and inclusions that provide ready paths for crack initiation and propagation. Various efforts have been made to study the factors driving the generation of stresses in the MLCC during the wave soldering process.