Failure Mechanisms in Wet Tantalum Capacitors

Failure modes of tantalum capacitors made by different technologies

Generally, tantalum capacitor failure modes have been discussed both for the standard manganese dioxide cathode and the new conductive polymer (CP) type. For standard tantalum in the normal operation mode, an electrical breakdown can be stimulated by an increase of the electrical conductance in channel by an electrical pulse or voltage level. This leads to capacitor destruction followed by ther...

New I.R. Thermography methodology for failure analysis on tantalum capacitors

Tantalum capacitors are widely used on electronic systems due to their high capacitance value in a small size and due to their long storage capability. They are particularly attractive for aerospace applications. From failure analysis perspective, tantalum capacitors are challenging. Their typical failure mechanisms are characterized by a local increase of the leakage current in the manganese d...

Characterization of Tantalum Polymer Capacitors

Solid-electrolyte tantalum capacitors were first developed and commercially produced in the 1950s. They represented a quantum leap forward in miniaturization and reliability over existing wound-foil wet electrolytic capacitors. While the solid tantalum capacitor has dramatically improved electrical performance versus wet-electrolyte capacitors, especially at low temperatures, today’s electronic...

Reliability of Solid Tantalum Capacitors

Tantalum Capacitors in Power Supply Applications

The capacitance range for tantalum capacitors spans from singular microfarads (uFd) through a thousand microfarads. It is an electrolytic type of capacitor that can utilize either a liquid type of electrolyte or a solid state material as the cathode connection. The anode construction utilizes the high porosity of the pressed tantalum material to create an enormous amount of surface area to prod...