The Transcendence Electron Transfer
Graphite fine particles have realized tunnel effect and turned ion transfer of a slow move into Transcendence Electron Transfer of a super high speed move by releasing electrons from ion's restriction

Among electronic parts, electrolytic capacitors are the worst cause of noise

All electrical appliances inevitably use some electrolytic capacitors. Two types of electrolytic capacitors are produced: the wet type - which is widely used and seals an electrolyte inside its case - and the dry type, tantalum, aluminium solid, and semiconductor capacitors. Just like the other parts in circuits, signal current flows through capacitors as well. However, both types of capacitor generate large amounts of internal distortion. The wet type uses an ion transfer system in which the internal electrolyte is an ion medium for conducting current between the nominal negative electrode and actual negatives electrodes. As you may be aware, ions have a larger mass than electrons, and the signal transfer rate in capacitors is nearly 100 times slower than the transfer rate of electrons. The delay occurs in all frequencies of signals. Especially at lower frequencies, the delay time increases non-linearly. Although the gap between electrodes in wet-type electrolytic capacitors is only 50µm, that distance is more than 20 thousand times the dielectric's thickness. The distance increases from tens to hundreds of times in a single appliance. In a power supply, signals circulate repeatedly. Each time a signal passes through a electrolytic capacitor, ion caused noise that is 30 to 40 dB higher than the noise from any other electrolytic components is generated. On other hand, dry-type capacitors use electron transfer system to handle the signal.

However, the electrode in contact with the dielectric consumes the conductive materials so that an even larger contact noise than that found in wet-type capacitors is generated. Furthermore the distortion noise is at levels 40 to 60 dB higher than that from other electric components. This mechanism of dry- capacitors can not be solved, even in the future. This fact was finally understood by the public when Jelmax Black Gate capacitors were disclosed, because Black Gates are so effective at eliminating the distortion. The most widely used wet-type electrolytic capacitor is constructed as shown in Figure 1.

A high-purity aluminium foil is etched in order to create a rough surface. Then it is chemically treated to create an oxide film used as the positive electrode. Both the positive electrode, and the negative electrode which is etched in a similar way, are rolled together with a separator in between them. Then electrolyte is impregnated and the whole assembly is sealed in a case. Finally, tabs are connected to the positive and negative electrodes. As a last step, the capacitor undergoes aging with an appropriate direct current voltage to repair foils' defects which may have been caused in the manufacturing process and chemically aging to treat it. Normally, the characteristics of electrolytic capacitors made in this way, such as impedance and tan given in textbooks and catalogs, are all expressed in static characteristics. The dynamic characteristics of capacitors, which are vitally important in examining their behaviour in actual use, are not considered. In addition, there is no apparent concern about the kinds of distortion noise described above or about the E.S.R. characteristics which we describe later in this catalog.

Lowering of power transfer efficiency due to electrode foil etching

To make a compact electrolytic capacitor, its electrode foils are etched to provide a larger surface area for increased electrostatic capacity. It is, however, impossible for the separator between the two electrodes to contain electrolyte proportionately to the increased electrostatic capacity. The smaller the size of a capacitor, the more inadequate the volume of ions to tranfer electrons. This means that this type of capacitor is not very effective for power tranferring in comparison with its capacity (impedance).

Three major problems with an electrolytic capacitor

In short, three major problems exist for electronic equipment using electrolytic capacitors:

  1. Signals have ion distortion noise, lowering the S/N ratio. This results in a substantial lowering of the volume of the signal information.
  2. The phase (frequency) of signals is delayed, seriously affecting color phase and digital pulse signals.
  3. The power transfer efficiency does not match the increased level of the signals.

These three problems lie in basic structure of the electrolytic capacitor and had long been thought to be impossible to solve. With the recent rapid progress in electronic devices, the inter-electrode distance of as small as 0,5 µm has been regarded inadequate in semiconductor elements. However, no drastic solution has been made for electrolytic capacitors which involve as much as 100 times the electron transmission speed due the use of ion transfer. This is because the electrolytic capacitor consists of aluminium foils, paper and electrolyte, for which no alternatives exist. A lot of improvements have been made for each of these materials. However, no basic have been made improvements regarding the drawbacks of ion transfer. The advantages of electrolytic capacitors, such as compactness, a large capacity, self repairable, ease of manufacture and low cost, make it difficult to obtain alternatives for them.

Black Gates are a history making idea which maintain the fundamentals of ion transfer and yet provide electron transfer speeds

Jelmax has always believed that distortion noise could only be reduced or eliminated by improving the ion tranfer system of wet-type electrolytic capacitors. The problem has always been that wet-type capacitors change the signal speed and phase, add ion distortion noise and reduce power which each pass of the signal inside the capacitor. Therefore, we got the idea of improving the separator as a path for the ion electric current, without changing the basic construction of wet-type electrolytic capacitors. Our goal was to bring the speed of ions close to the level of electrons. We succeeded by attaching fine-grained conductive particles to a Manila paper's fibers as separator. Then the electrons could pass along this layer of particles. In other words, our idea was to convert almost all the internal section of the capacitor to electron tranfer. This innovation was the idea behind Black Gates unprecedented in the world.

A move of electrons on distributed conductive fine particles has broken common sense

Until now, there have always been very strict regulations that prohibited the inclusion of impurities such as residual ions and conductive fine particles in separator papers. They had to be kept to less than 1 PPM because it was believed that "contaminated" separators were the cause of insulation failure and explosions. The Black Gate idea meant to introduce more than 100 thousand times the contaminant limit, by adding graphite particles to the separator. Of course, all the capacitor "specialists" using their old-fashioned common sense knew it would be impossible to do what we proposed.

Jelmax overcome this poor thinking. We asserted that the cause of all the explosions and insulation failures is in fact due to the capacitor's positive electrode themselves, and we insisted that the separators, whose inductive paths carry only a few volts, were probably not the cause. Our experiments produced dramatic results. Even at 500 volts, Black Gate capacitors passed the toughest life-span test without any trouble. This not only showed the errors of the old "common sense" thinking of the "experts", but also made the public aware of our new, innovative super-high-performance capacitor, the Black Gate. The construction is basically the same as that of ordinary capacitors, as shown in Figure 2. The distinctive feature of the Black Gate is the mechanism of it's separator. That is, very fine conductive particles of super-high-purity graphite and other materials are distributed with no contact and applied in the separator made of thin capacitor paper. The separator maintains non-contact against the positive electrode surface too. It functions to improve ion transfer between the actual negative electrode and aluminium negative electrode.

Jelmax has made a revolutionary discovery that by distributing a certain amount of graphite particles having a certain particle size in the separator without contact with each other and electrodes, tunnel effect has occurred making electrons free from ion's restriction and run along the fine particles through the separator to the electrode wherein ion transfer has been turned into ohmic and super-high-speed Transcendence Electron Transfer. Electrons have been moving slowly (ion transfer) along a distance 20 thousand times greater than the dielectric's thickness in the past. With the tunnel effect, however electrons are turned into instantaneous move making the distance substantially zero. Noises and distortions generated while the electrons pass through the electrolyte are disappeared. Moreover, quantity of moving electrons has no restriction thereby improving power transfer efficiency greatly. Problems in the conventional electrolytic capacitors 1., 2. and 3. described above are swept up.

It should be noticed that by making the electrons bypass the ions and greatly reducing the consumption of ions, we have succeeded in prolonging the life by 5 to 10 times than the life of conventional capacitors which has been the most difficult problem. This is the most excellent feature of the Black Gate which is never found in other capacitors.

Overwhelming performance with impedance and E.S.R. characteristics that are 1/2 to 1/10 those of ordinary capacitors

You may be especially interested to know how much difference in electrical performance there is between Black Gate capacitors and ordinary capacitors at the same voltage and capacity. A technical magazine in Japan conducted and reported an official test of several 63V/ 2200µF electrolytic capacitors from various manufacturers. These were purchased at random in Akihabara, Tokyo: the largest marketplace for retail electronics in Japan. The major findings from this test are shown in Figure 3 and 4.

As the figures show clearly, Black Gate capacitors were superior to all other capacitors with 1/2 to 1/10 the impedance and the E.S.R. The report attracted lots of attention all over the world, and surprised everyone. As shown in Table 1. the Black Gate tested was rather small in size compared with the other capacitors and it had the best tan of all the capacitors, while exhibiting the smallest L.C. (leakage current). This means that Black Gates will have a longer life in any comparable application than any other electrolytic capacitor. Furthermore, in the E.S.R. (equivalent series resistance) data in Figure 4, you can clearly see the characteristics that make our Black Gates' performance stand out from all the rest.

As you may be aware, E.S.R.can be expressed as:
E.S.R. = impedance x tan

The E:S.R. value reveals the real strength or weakness capacitors. The reciprocal of this value is "Q". When the value of "Q" increases, the resolution of proximate two signals increases. Therefore, the amount of signal information that is accurately transmitted is also increased. This aspect of Black Gate capacitor performance is superior in almost every frequency range. At its best point, this value for Black Gate capacitors is cut to 1/2 to 1/10 the levels of ordinary capacitors and provides an incredible, ideal curve.

Black Gate have distinctive noise level advantages over dry-type capacitors

As described before, dry-type electrolytic capacitors perform an internal electron transfer. However, due to their construction limitations, they are limited to low voltage ranges and have no self-recovery function. Further, they are significantly more expensive than the wet-type. We compared these dry-type electrolytic capacitors, ordinary wet-type electrolytic capacitors, and super-small Black Gate capacitors from our "PK" series (designed to be especially compact). As Figure 5 shows, the dry-type capacitors generated large contact noise (because of their construction method) that was more than 60 dB higher than the Black Gates. And the dry-type capacitors didn't even offer better electron transfer. Instead, they will actually decrease the S/N ratio to any appliance they are installed in.

Remarkably improved S/N ratios due to large decreases in non-linear distortion

Next, we compared ordinary wet-type capacitors and Black Gates, using identical materials and production processes for everything except the separator. The results are shown in Figure 6. The performance differences are obvious. In a CLT-1 distortion comparison, Black Gate capacitors had 40 to 50 dB less harmonic distortion than ordinary wet-type capacitors. This means that the ion transfer distortion normally found in the separator has been eliminated in Black Gate capacitors.

Stable Operation at very low temperatures

As show in Figure 7, the Black Gate does not show any deterioration in performance at temperatures as low as -40°C as compared with conventional electrolytic capacitors. This benefits electronic equipment for use in low-temperature environments. It is known that conventional electrolytic capacitors show substantial deterioration in performance due to the freezing of an electrolyte.

Excellent discharge characteristics

As explained above, the Black Gate uses conductive graphite particles as a bypass for electrons. This makes the product suitable for instantaneous charging and discharging of large electronic energy as with strobe flash equipment. Generally, the luminous curve at the tine of discharging depends on the capacitor's E.S.R. value. The smaller the E.S.R. value, the higher the peak illuminance level. The Black Gate is therefore very promising for use as a Plasma discharging capacitor as well. The use of a Black Gate capacitor in an inverter for a fluorescent lamp can deliver a substantially improved level of performance thanks to its very high power transfer efficiency. It is possible to make a compact, lightweight, low-cost power supply unit using a Black Gate capacitor.

From audio frequency up to giga-hertz applications - Non-polarized Black Gates beat them all

Among the many accomplishments of the various Black Gate capacitor series, non-polarized Black Gates deserve special mention. Ordinary non-polarized electrolytic capacitors are made by facing oxide-coated positive electrodes toward each other so that the internal electrical potential changes to match every alternation of current direction. They cause greater deterioration of both phase and distortion characteristics than ordinary capacitors do. They are produced in small quantities and sometimes appliances containing these capacitors are rejected. But, Black Gate BG-NX non-polarized capacitors, conductive separator particles function as gate electrodes in stabilizing the zero potential of alternating current. Non-polarized Black Gate capacitors offer enhanced performance. They beat out every other kind of capacitor. The fine graphite particles play an important role here, as well.

The BLACK carbon particles functioning as a GATE electrode is where the name "Black Gate" comes from. In addition, the aluminium oxide as the dielectric has the same effective quality as sapphires; the best capacitors on earth. The extremely thin, super-small electrodes maximize the capacitance for a given area of aluminium oxide, and they work without resonance at even giga-hertz frequencies. We achieved a super-small BG-NX Hi-Q of 0.1µF for the first time ever in the world. They have an amazing one-thousandth of the high frequency distortion of ceramic capacitors. When all is said and done, Black Gate capacitors conquer the full range, from audio to giga-hertz frequencies. There are no better capacitors.

With no internal resonance the Super E-Cap becomes the ideal capacitor

Our unlimited pursuit of the technology used in Black Gates finally led us to develop L-cancelling pairs of non-polarized Black Gates. We connected two identical non-polarized Black Gates (BG-Ns or BG-NXs). Together they cancel the resonance generated by their internal inductance. This method results in ideal capacitors whose impedance an E.S.R. values decrease as the frequency increases. We named these capacitors "Super E-Caps". This system completely eliminated the internal resonance of the capacitors. As a result, we were the first to be able to completely eliminate ripple and EMI noise in DC/DC converters and switching power supplies. This problem had Plagued electronic appliance designers, but we solved it. Details of this system are described in the catalog for Super E-Caps and in our Technical Reports, No. 71 and 85. We suggest you read these reports for more information. (Recently granted patent No. 2,606,771,U.S.P.5,379,181).

The Black Gate WK, WKZ was created by expanding the ability of our non-polarized capacitors to the maximum

In polarized electrolytic capacitors, there exist no capacitor action from cathode to anode electrodes. This is the reverse current. More precisely, not only a positive direction current but also a negative direction current forming a part of an alternate current flow in the capacitor which cause distortions and noises. In a larger scale, the flows generate a gas by heating the electrolyte which is a cause of short life.

Particularly, smoothing capacitors in a rectifier which is connected to a power supply directly or through a transformer are a subject to reverse pulses from the rectifier. They are constantly the subject to high intensity reverse pulses when they are used in a primary smoothing circuit for a switching power supply. These capacitors are also causes of generation of EMI noises and heat. WK and WKZ have a remarkable structure which enables a complete non-polarized capacitor suppressing all the reverse pulses by applying a oxide film having a large resisting voltage exceeding by 1/2 of the operation voltage to the cathode electrode. All the problems above have been, thus, resolved and extremely low noise, high power and long life have been attained. This is a result of realizing the features of the Black Gate at their maximum level which no other type of capacitors can not realize. See Technical Reports No. 89 and 90.

The only capacitor Black Gate which is able to completely eliminate harmful electromagnetic wave at its source

Recently, it has become a real problem that electromagnetic waves emitted from inside of electronic devices give a harm to a human body or high grade medical appliances. Harmonic noise having a wide frequency range generated by a power supplies or circuits of cell phones, digital cameras or personal computers are real problems which give anxiety to users of such devices. There is a move to restrict the problem by contacting a treaty on a world wide base.

The harmonic noises are generated by electrolyte due to its non-linear characteristics used for a pulse transmission circuit when a pulse signal passes through capacitors. Particularly, a larger amount of harmful electromagnetic waves are generated from capacitors used for switching power supplies or DC/DC converters.

Since the electromagnetic waves are generated from capacitors used for eliminating the noises due to their functional incompleteness, there is no ways other than replacing the ideal capacitors that do not generate noises.

Figure 8, A and B are comparison curves showing non-linear distortion characteristics, impedances and E.S.R. characteristics of electrolytic capacitors widely used in smoothing circuits of power supplies in ordinary personal computers, etc. and Black Gate N series.

These curves clearly show that the source of the electromagnetic waves is the electrolytic capacitors.
In Fig. 8, A, the difference between ordinary electrolytic capacitors and Black Gates reaches 50 dB and the difference of E.S.R. value is 10 times in Fig. 8, B. These figures show that total difference is amount to a big value of 60 dB. In other words, it is understood that ordinary used electrolytic capacitors generate harmful electromagnetic waves of 1000 times larger than the waves generated by Black Gates. With the ordinary electrolytic capacitors, improvement of only 6 dB or 10 dB in suppressing the harmful electromagnetic waves can be obtained by taking some measures which are far away from 60 dB. The fact is proved that only Black Gates can reduce the level of harmful electromagnetic waves to -160 dB for the first time which level is below natural noise level (-120 dB). Black Gates also can be said to be the sole elements that suppress the harmful electromagnetic waves. See Technical Report No. 111.

If Olympic game for capacitors is held, Black Gate will win a championship in decathlon without fail

Figure 9 is a comparison table in which characteristics of capacitors ordinarily used for electronic devices and the Black Gate with respect to 10 items. According to the table, the Black Gate gets full scores for all the items. Since such difference has never been achieved before, this fact shows that the status of King of Capacitors will be firm in the coming century.

Technical Reports support the Black Gate concepts

In Black Gate capacitors, we applied almost all of the path as electron transfer channels. As described in the earlier paragraph concerning impedance, Black Gate capacitors offer better characteristics than ordinary capacitors with five times the capacitance. In addition, they crate only 1/1000 (-60 dB) the internal distortion, offer 100 times faster internal signal transfer rates, and have 2 to 3 times the power transfer efficiency of ordinary capacitors. These performance levels are previously unprecedented. They are beyond the comprehension of people who cling to old, wrong ideas about electrolytic capacitors. But, these performance levels have been independently verified. They are FACTS! When you use Black Gate capacitors throughout your appliance design, you will get surprising results. Our Technical Reports are useful guides for your application of Black Gate capacitors in designing appliances. Jelmax´s decade-long accumulation of valuable knowledge has been published in first class technical magazines and in over a hundred Technical Reports. These reports have been very well received and are considered trustworthy in the information they present. The contents of many of these reports have been used as topics for in-house education programs and as texts used by technicians and educators, because they contain valuable information not available in books or schools. Some of these reports have been translated into English and have been well received around the world. Copies of these reports are available upon request. Black Gates have already been adopted for use in appliances manufactured by dozens of firstname electric appliance manufacturers both in and outside of Japan. They have contributed to tremendous increases in the performance of these appliances.

Black Gate capacitors are welcomed as one of the biggest electronic parts innovations in the 20th century. The applications are limitless in all sorts of electronic devices and equipment, such as radios, TV sets, cameras, VTRs, tape recorders, stereos, audio appliances, CD players, digital processors, communications equipment, medical instruments such as MRI/CT/DSA/US, electron microscopes, AD/DA converters, AC/DC power supplies, DC/DC power supplies, works stations, fax machines, high resolution copying machines, printing machines, laser instruments, NC tools, etc. Black Gate capacitors are now recognized all over the world as indispensable components in decreasing the noise found in high resolution portable equipment for multi-media use. The spreading use of Black Gate capacitors is guaranteed since it would be impossible to develop capacitors superior to Black Gates. The primary technology used in Black Gates is described in Reports Nos. 50, 51, and 52. We strongly recommend that you read these reports.

Improving the target S/N ratio of appliances and reducing component distortion

As explained above in detail, distortion noises due to ions which are to exist essentially disappeared from the inside of the Black Gate because the Transcendence Electro Transfer took place based on the surprising tunnel effect inside the electrolytic capacitor of ion transfer. This is a big news which has never heard before. As a result that the largest noise source in electronic circuits has disappeared, the target S/N (Signal to Noise Ratio) of all the appliances has been improved at a degree which has never been experienced before with a rapid decrease in circuit noise level. We replaced all the capacitors with non-polarized Black Gates of the set in CLT-1, a distortion measuring device having the highest sensitivity. Then measured the distortion of itself. Remarkably, the result showed that improvement with more than 20 dB was realized. Consequently the limitation of the measuring value reaches - 180 dB. This is an evidence that S/N of all the electronic devices are also improved by more than 20 dB.
For more details, see the Technical Report No. 110.

The Idling Process

If a Black Gate capacitor mounted on an electronic device is actuated, a signal current flows into it and the electrodes are gradually activated, reducing non-linear distortion and phase distortion substantially while improving the efficiency of power transfer efficiency. The time required for this process varies widely with the capacity, voltage and signal level. A total of about 30 hours is the standard level. Once this process of idling is completed, the effect continues as long as the capacitor is kept at the same place and the operating environment does not undergo a substantial change. The effect of idling has been proved with all types of electronic equipment-analog, digital, high-frequency and other devices. It must be noted that idling is different from aging, which applies a direct current voltage without giving signals.

Intellectual Property

Japanese Patent: No. 1,368,245; 1,662,570
New Patent No. 2,606,771
U.S. Patent: 4,345,302; 5,057,972; 5,379,181
German Patent: 2,900,742
Trade Mark: No. 1,601,800; 1,601,801
No. 2,503,956; 3,132,300