DDTC to Decontrol Broader Range of Capacitors

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls will again change the export control threshold for certain high-energy storage capacitors to remove license requirements from capacitors that are widely commercially available and no longer provide military or intelligence advantages. The change, outlined in a final rule published March 25 and effective April 24, decontrols certain capacitors with a voltage rating of 500 volts or less.

The rule was issued about 11 months after DDTC published an interim final rule that removed controls from capacitors with a voltage rating of 125 volts or less (see 2304260017). But after receiving public comments, the agency said capacitors with higher voltage ratings also no longer warrant control in U.S. Munitions List Category XI because they can be easily bought and sold internationally and have uses beyond the military.

One commenter told DDTC that some medical devices, including defibrillators, use wet tantalum capacitors with a voltage rating at or above 250 volts.

The previous 125 volt threshold “would result in unnecessary controls on capacitors utilized in commercial applications that are comparable to those available internationally without multilateral export control restrictions,” DDTC said. It also said it “recognizes” that the “rated voltage of such capacitors is likely to increase” in the future.

“Most significantly, during its review, the Department did not identify any capacitors with a rated voltage of 500 V or less that continue to provide a critical military or intelligence advantage such that they continue to warrant control on the USML,” DDTC said.

DDTC also used the final rule to address commenter concerns about other parts of its interim final rule released last year. The agency said each of the four comments it received asked for the voltage criterion to be defined according to “voltage rating” or “rated voltage” rather than “capable of operating.” They said “voltage rating” is the industry standard and would be consistent with the way voltages are listed on the Commerce Department’s Commerce Control List. They also told DDTC they opposed using the term “capable of operating” because it’s “unclear” and doesn’t “reflect terminology widely used in the electronics industry.”

The agency said it “accepts these comments and will implement the term ‘rated voltage’ to specify the voltage criterion in place of the phrase ‘capable of operating,’ which does not have a broadly accepted definition.”

Other changes that commenters made and DDTC accepted include revising language in USML Category XI to define “rated voltage” as “the value, based on the capacitor's design, testing, and evaluation, that describes the maximum amount of continuous voltage that will not damage the capacitor.” The agency also added a sentence to clarify that rated voltage “does not include short-term transient or surge operating conditions,” and that “rated voltage” will be “assessed for this criterion at an operating temperature of 85 degrees Celsius (°C) or less.” This will “ensure consistency across manufacturers in evaluating the threshold.”