> When is it OK to use aluminum caps instead of the outrageously expensive > tantalum? > > Jay When you do not care about high leakage, temperature dependence of the cap. value, and rapid failure at high temperature (<1000 hours), as well as the danger of leaking electrolyte (after 2-5years) and the effects of them drying out and losing capacity (and increasing ESR) after 3-5 years. In general in a consumer product you use Ta caps only for parts that need to be highly stable and low leakage, low esr. All the others are Al caps. In a higher end product you will probably be choosy about the make and type of each part, not only caps. Peter -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.