Sutnan Capacitor Information

Component makers are cautiously optimistic that unit demand for Tantalum Capacitor will remain strong this year, which could result in a tight supply of these devices in the second half of 2001. Contributing to the problem is a shortage of raw materials that became apparent at the end of 2000.

Although supply for Tantalum Capacitor in smaller package sizes such as A and B is more in line with demand, larger C, D and E(X) sizes are still in short supply, say passive-component suppliers.

“Supply for A, B and P case sizes has loosened up dramatically due to lower demand from cell-phone manufacturers,” said Rich Schuster, the president of NIC Components Corp. (Melville, N.Y.). “They’re probably off allocation.”

Schuster said lead times for Tantalum Capacitor in A- and P-case sizes have dropped to eight to 10 weeks, while deliveries for devices in B-size packages are a little longer at 10 to 12 weeks. Devices in the B-case size are used in a variety of applications in the telecom and PC sectors.

The larger case sizes are still in short supply, primarily because of limited production capacity. During last year’s shortage many capacitor manufacturers, particularly in Japan, shifted most of their production to the smaller packages to meet explosive demand in the cell-phone and handheld-device markets.

Demand for the larger tantalum capacitors is still pretty high, Schuster said. These devices are used in consumer, industrial, PC, peripheral and telecommunications applications-and are still on allocation, he said.

“Most of our production capacity for tantalum capacitors has been on allocation to our strategic customers for this year and that will remain so until we get a better feel for where the market is headed,” said Glyndwr Smith, assistant to the CEO and senior vice president at Vishay Intertechnology Inc. (Malvern, Pa.). Smith said demand will depend on several factors, including the overall economy, inventory-adjustment time frames and growth in key end markets in 2001.

Mike Morton, senior vice president of product marketing for passive-component manufacturer TTI Inc. (Fort Worth, Texas), said he believes the industry will start to see improved availability for the larger D- and E-case sizes in the second quarter.

However, a key challenge Tantalum Capacitor manufacturers face is a shortage of the tantalum powder needed to produce the parts, particularly for the larger devices that consume more raw materials, said Eric Pratt, director of information services at iSuppli Corp. (El Segundo, Calif.).

Strong demand for tantalum capacitors has severely strained the supply of capacitor-grade tantalum powders. The production of tantalum powder to manufacture tantalum capacitors represents about 60 percent of the overall consumption of tantalum, according to materials supplier H.C. Starck Inc. (Newton, Mass.).

Until additional tantalum-ore production capacity comes online in the middle of 2001, supply will remain tight, materials suppliers and component manufacturers agreed.

In addition to shortages, the tight supply of materials has produced price hikes, which in some cases are being passed on to the customer. For instance, NIC Components has recently increased prices between 10 and 15 percent and anticipates an additional price hike in April.

Although the component market appears to be in the midst of an inventory adjustment period and a general slowdown from key industry sectors, capacitor makers predict that won’t last long and are in fact preparing for severe shortages of Tantalum Capacitor by the second half of 2001.

To meet customer requirements, some cap makers have formed partnerships with materials producers to establish independent supply sources of tantalum to meet their increased demand. Kemet Corp., for instance, has established a 50/50 joint venture with Australasian Gold Mines NL to own and fund the development of existing Australasian tantalum projects, including the pilot plant at Dalgaranga, Australia. It also provides for the purchase of processed tantalum products by Kemet from the pilot plant and other processing entities.

48 pieces total, kit includes 4 pieces each of 12 different chip tantalum capacitor. Tantalum chip capacitors are contained in strips of sealed carrier tape, which are clearly labeled with descriptions in human readable format.Chip tantalum capacitor kits are easy to refill by individual capacitor value.

This kit also comes with a set of preprinted labels which you can use to label your existing SMT component storage units or to label the compartments in the SuperKit enclosure, shown below.

The SuperKit enclosure, with 128 individually lidded compartments, is sold separately.

Axial-lead tubular hermetically sealed solid tantalum capacitor have proven reliability and performance, combined with low leakage current, high capacitance and low dissipation factor with very high stability over time. They can withstand high frequency vibrations from 55 to 2000 Hz at 20g with no internal damage. Plastic film insulating sleeve hermetically sealed withstand life test of 2000 hours at 85 degrees C at rated WDCV. The tantalum capacitor have been proven in commercial, harsh environments of industrial and military applications. Solid tantalum capacitors are suitable for decoupling, blocking, by-passing, filtering and r-c timing circuits.

 Most popular axial solid tantalum series for commercial applications include:

• 150D by Sprague: spec sheet
• T110 by Kemet: spec sheet
• T140 by Kemet: spec sheet
• TAS by Mallory
• ST513 by Siemens
• 40SS by Mepco/Philips

Military applications:

• CSR: spec sheet, MIL-PRF-39003

Solid tantalum axial-lead capacitors come in voltage ratings of 6, 10, 15, 20, 35, 50, 75, 100 and 125 WDCV.

They are available in 4 case sizes: A, B, C and D with capacitance tolerance of 5%, 10% or 20%.

Ceramic Chip Capacitors Purpose:
This experiment documents and monitors tin whisker growth on one lot of pure tin-plated multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCCs) mounted inside a hybrid using conductive (silver) epoxy and then subjected to extensive thermal cycling followed by long term ambient storage.  The experiment was initiated in 2001 by a non-NASA entity who then donated one of their test samples to NASA Goddard tin whisker researchers for continued monitoring.  Details of this study and interim observations were formally published in June 2002 at the American Electroplaters and Surface Finishers (AESF) SUR/FIN conference in Chicago, IL.  The paper also discusses similar but unrelated experiments by others attempting to induce whisker growth on tin-plated MLCCs.

1. J. Brusse, “Tin Whisker Observations on Pure Tin Plated  Chip ceramic capacitor“, AESF SUR/FIN Conference, June 2002, pp 45-61
2. Slide presentation is also available.

The NASA Goddard Whisker WWW Site will be used to provide updates as monitoring of these specimens continues.

Ceramic Chip Capacitors Background:

In 2001 a hybrid microcircuit manufacturer informed NASA Goddard tin whisker researchers of their surprising observation of profuse whisker formation on pure tin-plated chip ceramic capacitor (MLCCs).  The hybrid manufacturer made this discovery during an evaluation intended to assess the electrical and mechanical integrity of joints made between pure tin-plated MLCC terminations and gold-plated substrate pads when using conductive (silver) epoxy instead of solder reflow for mounting.  Their experiments included the following basic approach:

In May 2001 the hybrid manufacturer donated one thermally cycled evaluation hybrid package (200+ cycles per Condition 1 above) to NASA Goddard for continued observation.  The package contained 6 pure tin-plated ceramic chip capacitors (size 0805) all reported to be from one manufacturing lot.  As received by NASA Goddard, the hybrid package had already been delidded.  The manufacturer supplied photos of the capacitor terminations to illustrate the extent of whisker growth they observed after temp cycle.  Upon receipt at NASA Goddard the sample was reinspected and the whisker formation was confirmed to be consistent with the extent of growth reported by the hybrid manufacturer with all 6 capacitors showing clear evidence of tin whisker formation.   NASA Goddard has since retained this sample in office ambient storage for ongoing observation and analysis.