What are these "colorful" capacitors called? Why are they used instead of regular ceramic ones?
What are these “colorful” capacitors called and why are they used
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Best Answer
Those are SMT film caps, probably PPS or similar (The issue with SMT film is that the reflow profile becomes somewhat critical, which is why you try to avoid them).
Used where relatively high values combined with good dielectric behaviour is desired as these have lower voltage coefficient than type II ceramics and lower dielectric absorption which can matter in things like sample and hold networks.
For values up to about 100nF or so, type I (C0G) dielectric ceramics are available, but these have significantly higher dielectric absorption which can matter in some applications, so sometimes a film part is preferred.
One trap with the SMT film parts is that they tend to drift initially after reflow, so if they form part of something critical that way you may with to delay calibration for a while to let them settle, learned that the hard way.