Capacitor Polarity

[SoundTech-LG]

Capacitors are generally marked with a stripe to denote  the negative polarity, correct?

I ran into this the other day with a co-worker. He had a pcb with a small SMD capacitor on it. The PCB was marked +, but the capacitor had the stripe on it, soldered to the board at the + mark!!!

found out that Tantalum SMD capacitors are marked this way. Could be a source of confusion.

[tszaboo]

Yes, they made it to make our life miserable, then they soaked the capacitors in gasoline, at least they burn like that. The black ones are even worse, ans there is (standard) electrolyte in the same package, color.

[mariush]

And then there's this:

http://industrial.panasonic.com/ww/products_e/product_cat2/AAA8000_e/AAA8000_e.html




Oh, and don't forget about companies like Asus or Asrock that mark the electrolytics on their motherboards with the negative strip representing the positive side of the capacitors. Funny to read on forums how people blow up 6-10 capacitors at a time when repairing such boards...

[Zero999]

I destroyed an SMT capacitor when I was an apprentice because of this.

[uwezi]

When I was a master student (1996) I used to work for a small company, reworking circuit boards with SMDs at night. During the first night shift I finished I think a dozen boards and was proud as could be. The next day I was informed that someone else had to resolder all the tantalums on the board   

I was confused, because I was sure to have respected the polarity of these capacitors, knowing that it was critical. But without ever having seen an SMD tantalum before I was not aware that manufacturers had formed a conspiracy by suddenly - and only for these components - marking the positive side with a broad line