Re: Re: tantalum caps was emc success

Jon,

Thank you for the detailed response. I've only got a few of these out
there, as their expense meant they were generally "designed out" :-)

But I do have replacement boards which have been "burned in" and then
sit on a shelf until called for... Would you suggest they be "fired
up" again before shipment? (puns intended)

Ballendo

>The Tantalum dielectric is fragile, and is built into the capacitor
>at assembly time by chemical processing. The Aluminum electrolytic
>dielectric can be reformed pretty much at will by the chemistry
>already inside the capacitor. If you polarize the tantalum cap
>in reverse, or charge or discharge too quickly, it can destroy the
>dielectric. If you leave it discharged for too long and then apply
>power (in a decoupling application) they have a tendency to fail.

<s>When the tantalum dielectric fails, it fails shorted.

>Jon