[sdiy] Tantalums in general

[Dave Manley]

George Hearn wrote:
> Sorry to put a spanner in the works on this thread but I do disagree with
> some of what has been said.  Tantalum is a solid electrolyte device and
> generally chosen over liquid electrolytes (Aluminium electrolytic etc.) when
> reliability and long term stability is paramount.  
> 	One good example is PC motherboards, good ones will advertise the
> use of solid capacitors, e.g. tantalum, as aluminium electrolytics are prone
> to fail when subjected to the high temperatures often seen in modern high
> clock rate systems.  Even if they do not fail their capacitance can reduce
> dramatically.

Note that there are 'solid polymer aluminum' capacitors.  When tantalum 
caps became unobtanium a while back we switched to those instead for 
high reliability telecom products.

http://www.cde.com/catalogs/SPAAppGuide.pdf

-D