...So I speak for over 100 engineers across maybe 30 years of designing high end comms products. The bottom line is that tants are high performance components with excellent reliability over time and temperature etc provided they are used correctly
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In a bad design they can fail spectacularly the first time the unit is switched on.
Okay, so how do you use them correctly, or was the purpose of your post - like Pjotr's earlier - merely to tell us how awesome you are?
Okay, so how do you use them correctly
Tantaliums by themselves are very reliable and long lasting, provided they are properly used. Engineers not understanding and/or neglecting their properties are to be blamed if they fail.
Or, really? Then how would you explain the ~0.1% failure rate I observed in tantalum caps coming right off the reel, *before* soldering? Can't really blame *me* for that, can you?
Be careful before you call others incompetent.
Tantaliums by themselves are very reliable and long lasting, provided they are properly used. Engineers not understanding and/or neglecting their properties are to be blamed if they fail.
Or, really? Then how would you explain the ~0.1% failure rate I observed in tantalum caps coming right off the reel, *before* soldering? Can't really blame *me* for that, can you?
Be careful before you call others incompetent.How long had those been in storage before coming off the reel? 0.1% sounds a high failure rate for freshly made parts. For parts that have been in storage for a while, whiskers shorting the plates might account for 0.1% failures.
I dont' like using tantalums because So much tantalum is mined by children under very dangerous circumstances.
I read 'inexperienced' rather than 'awesome'. I thought tantalum caps were perfectly reliable too, right up until the point I came across a design in which they simply weren't.
I mean, if I have to derate working voltage, ripple current and temperature on tantalum caps by >50% to keep them from blowing up (and worry about the rate of change of current and voltage, to boot) then why the hell should I select them in the first place?
So, why do I need a 50V rated capacitor for my 24V power rail? The
answer is that you can indeed use a surface mount tantalum capacitor
at or near its rated voltage with the understanding that the failure rate at
this voltage condition will typically be between 0.1 and 1.0% per one
thousand hours of operation. In addition, the user can expect to see
increases in initial power on failure rates following board mounting.
Most applications cannot accept this rate of failure however. So, to
improve the reliability of the device, KEMET recommends designers
follow the derating guidelines outlined in this module
For the voltage, because the exponential factor is 17, the failure rate
multiplier increases exponentially as the voltage exceeds 60%. It still
has a near unity factor at 50% rated voltage, but the failure rate doubles
at 60%, jumping to a multiplier of 14.7 at 70%, 134 at 80%, and close to
1000 at 90%. For this capacitor type, exceeding the recommended
derating voltage can lead to very high failure rates.
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Or ordered from some shady supplier, so might be counterfeits as well.
I mean, if I have to derate working voltage, ripple current and temperature on tantalum caps by >50% to keep them from blowing up (and worry about the rate of change of current and voltage, to boot) then why the hell should I select them in the first place?That exactly what manufacturers suggest depending on the conditions.
Right... so I guess you didn't pick up that I was basically saying that once you do all the necessary derating to ensure a tantalum cap can survive such a stressful application as, say, board-level supply bypassing that tantalum is no longer even remotely competitive with al. electrolytic and/or MLCC types?
Well, if you use MLCC of comparable capacitance without significant voltage derating, you'll find that there is not so much of the rated capacitance left.
MLCC capacitors are prone to become shorted too.
So, your reasoning about being completely not competitive is quiet questionable.
Also if you need some thin boards, electrolytic capacitors are not any good and have own downsides.
Here's quite a good presentation comparing different capacitor types for use in power applications:
http://www.kemet.com/Lists/TechnicalArticles/Attachments/5/Avnet2012PowerForum_CapacitorsSelection.pdf
Well, if you use MLCC of comparable capacitance without significant voltage derating, you'll find that there is not so much of the rated capacitance left.
This really only applies to Y5V and Z5U dielectrics, which can lose as much as 60% of their capacitance when 100% of rated DC voltage is applied; the capacitance of X7R (and similar dielectrics) only declines by about 10% under the same operating conditions.
"This points out why the Y5V should not be used in systems that are intended for long life (>3 years) applications".
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X5R & X7R can also have terrible voltage coefficients - there are plenty of graphs showing 70% loss at rated voltage and more than 50% of their capacitance at 50% rated voltage. It depends on the film thickness - the smaller the part is physically for a given rated capacitance the worse - for examples see page 5 of:
http://www.yageo.com/exep/pages/download/literatures/High%20Capacitance%20MLCCs_2012.pdf
...
....
X5R & X7R can also have terrible voltage coefficients - there are plenty of graphs showing 70% loss at rated voltage and more than 50% of their capacitance at 50% rated voltage. It depends on the film thickness - the smaller the part is physically for a given rated capacitance the worse - for examples see page 5 of:
http://www.yageo.com/exep/pages/download/literatures/High%20Capacitance%20MLCCs_2012.pdf
...
Well, I stand corrected. I don't use Yageo parts, nor do I have the pressing need to cram 10uF into a 0603 package, but all that said it does appear that there is quite a wide range of DC bias characteristics vs. package size and capacitance value for the X7R dielectric from one of my preferred suppliers, Murata (another supplier, Kemet, doesn't even bother to quantify this behavior for their commercial and automotive parts, only military).
Well, if you use MLCC of comparable capacitance without significant voltage derating, you'll find that there is not so much of the rated capacitance left.
that tantalum is no longer even remotely competitive with al. electrolytic and/or MLCC types
...(asshat bits deleted)...
Yet again, I wrote:QuoteWell, if you use MLCC of comparable capacitance without significant voltage derating, you'll find that there is not so much of the rated capacitance left.Because you were arguing:Quotethat tantalum is no longer even remotely competitive with al. electrolytic and/or MLCC typesI guess they are supposed to compete in similar usage scenario?