Electrical Degradation Can Occur in MLCCs Without a Causal Crack

What the evidence preview establishes

The evidence did not support internal or termination cracking as the cause of leakage. Electrical behavior and construction analysis were more consistent with premature degradation of X5R base-metal-electrode dielectric associated with material and fabrication details.

Why this case matters

A suspected crack should not be elevated to root cause without electrical and morphological correlation. In high-permittivity BME MLCCs, dielectric aging and fabrication-dependent defect chemistry can dominate even when cross sections appear largely intact.