Re: tantalum caps was emc success

Wally K, Jeff, Jon E, Mariss, List,

I too have used tantalums' where they seemed to make sense. Never
blown one up. No electrolytics, either. So I gotta ask myself, "Do I
feel lucky?... Well, Do I...?

What I want to know is:
Is this a situation (like selenium rectifiers, and OLD paper/wax
capacitors) where the value, or other operational characteristics (of
the tantalum cap) change, and LEAD to the "flash, Bang, and white
smoke"?

Or is it like Wally K sez, Bad DESIGN practice???

I'd sure like as definitive answer as possible! (I've got
tantalums "out there"!)

Ballendo

P.S. This thread is a good example of a bad practice re: USEFUL
subject headings. I've changed it AGAIN, what do tantalum caps have
to do with EMC success??? Let's try and help those who don't wish to
read EVERY msg. just to see what it's about...

>Hi Jeff, it sounds like something was poorly designed if it blew up
>like that. Tantalum caps are used in almost every electronic
>consumer and industrial product you can think of. And out of those
>billions of products how many blow up. As i said before in 25 years
>i have never seen one, but i have seen many electrolitics blow up.
>Wally K.