I've never had any Ta cap fail except through reverse voltage (because they
were inserted the wrong way round). Then they pop and a bead of molten
tantalum pokes out of a pinhole in the case. Aluminum ones take a little
longer to manifest their discomfort and can sometimes still be used once
they are reoriented.
/\/\/\/*=Martin

----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas Butler" <dbutler@IMETRIX.COM>
To: <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2001 12:12 PM
Subject: Re: [EE]: Aluminum caps vs. Tantalum


> I remember something about tantalum caps needing to be used at a goodly
> fraction of their rated voltage.  I.E. on a 5V bus a 25V cap would fail
> sooner than a 10V cap.
>
> Does anyone else remember that?
>
> Sherpa Doug
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Roman Black [mailto:fastvid@EZY.NET.AU]
> > Sent: Monday, December 17, 2001 9:18 AM
> > To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> > Subject: Re: [EE]: Aluminum caps vs. Tantalum
> >
> >
> > Russell McMahon wrote:
> >
> > > If you want to produce a product which MIGHT smell, shriek,
> > explode and
> > > catch fire and/or short out various parts of its circuitry
> > at indeterminate
> > > future dates then Tantalum caps are definitely the way to
> > go ! Because this
> > > isn't what happens in all cases and because, if you design
> > well and are very
> > > careful and lucky you may not have any problems, you are
> > now liable to have
> > > people telling you what fine caps Tantalums are ;-)
> >
> > I've seen resistors smoke and explode a lot
> > too, maybe we should all stop using resistors. ;o)
> > I don't know what bad experiences you had with
> > the tantalums but I haven't seen any trouble with
> > them. But then I never use a 16v cap on a 16v
> > power supply rail.
> > -Roman
> >
> > --
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> >
> >
> >
>
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