Sutnan Capacitor Information

This November, our company will attend Electronica2008 in Munich, Germany. At this fair, we will strongly recommend our Tantalum Capacitor to visitors and customers from all over the world. Especially TS19 Dipped Tantalum Capacitor and and TS20 Chip Tantalum Capacitor will be our focus.  From the sales performance of 2008 first half year, the two Tantalum Capacitors bring us very good business and customers’ comment to the two series is satisfactory , these bring us more confidence to expand our market for Tantalum Capacitors all over the world, especially in Europe and in America.  

The lead spacing and form outline are very important in selecting your choice of dipped tantalum capacitor. Lead spacing is determined is offered in a few common spreads. They are indicated in the chart below.

There are some common outline forms used by the leading manufacturers of dipped radial tantalum capacitors. Some of these have names such as “hairpin” “hockey-stick” and “lock-in”. These are determined by the type of crimps in the leads.

These capacitors are made to specific case sizes. Some manufacturers offer a wider selection than others. For example AVX offers their TAP series of dipped radial tantalum capacitors in 15 case sizes while Sprague/Vishay offers their comparable 199D series in 6 sizes.

Since a dipped radial tantalum capacitor is polarized it is important to understand how these units are marked to ensure that they are inserted properly into the circuit. We have included charts they will show you how some of the leading manufacturers mark this style of capacitor along with the most common lead forms.

Some applications where you can use a dipped tantalum capacitor are bypassing, coupling, blocking, filtering and timing in wide range of commercial, industrial and military applications. Other types of capacitors that can be used for these applications are ceramic and film capacitors. Each dielectric has advantages and disadvantages. The tantalum advantages are higher capacitance values within a given package size and stability of capacitance with applied DC voltage.

Tantalum capacitors are a form of electrolytic capacitor. However, some forms of them are non-polar, containing two capacitors connected in series (negative to negative). In comparison with aluminium electrolytic capacitors, they are for similar capacitance and volume ratings generally more expensive, with lower effective series resistance. They usually have longer life, especially at moderately elevated temperatures. For surface mount devices, they are generally smaller.

Tantalums exploit the tendency of tantalum to form a protective oxide surface layer. They use tantalum powder, pressed into a pellet shape, as one “plate” of the capacitor with the oxide as the dielectric, and an electrolytic solution or conductive solid as the other “plate”. Because the dielectric layer can be very thin (thinner than the similar layer in, for instance, an aluminium electrolytic capacitor), a high capacitance can be achieved in a small volume. Because of the size and weight advantages, Tantalum Capacitor is useful in portable telephones, pagers, personal computers, and automotive electronics.

The multilayer ceramic capacitor has a many-layered dielectric. These capacitors are small in size, and have good temperature and frequency characteristics.This capacitor is used to bypass the high frequency to ground, Above about the Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor information content.

We offer these Disc Ceramic capacitor in a wide range of voltages and capacitance. They are Radial Lead type. Ceramic capacitors are used for blocking, by-pass and coupling of DC and signals to VHF range, pulse logic and timing circuits and for general purpose applications. Choose NP0 type when stability is of concern, such as in RF circuits. The monolythic ceramic are epoxy dipped. They are small in size and are used in VHF circuits, bypassing, and general purpose use. They are preferred over standard Ceramic capacitor for their small size and stability. The photo to the right both show a .1µf value at 50 volts. You can clearly see the size difference.

Ceramic capacitors are constructed with materials such as titanium acid barium used as the dielectric. Internally, these capacitors are not constructed as a coil, so they can be used in high frequency applications. Typically, they are used in circuits which bypass high frequency signals to ground. These Ceramic capacitors have the shape of a disk. Their capacitance is comparatively small, Above about the Ceramic Capacitor information content.

The Ceramic capacitor on the left is a 100pF capacitor with a diameter of about 3 mm.
The Ceramic capacitor on the right side is printed with 103, so 10 x 103pF becomes 0.01 µF. The diameter of the disk is about 6 mm.
Ceramic capacitors have no polarity. Ceramic capacitors should not be used for analog circuits, because they can distort the signal.