SMT Aluminum Electrolytic For Large Capacitance Values. SP-Cap For Low ESR Values.

The benefits of Panasonic's capacitor solutions over tantalum capacitors include:
• Stable Pricing
• Faster Lead-Times
• Broad Availability
• Safer Products
• Wider P/N Selections

These benefits provide design engineers and purchasers with more options for their end use products. Panasonic SMT Aluminum Electrolytics can be used for large capacitance values and SP-Caps can be used when low ESR values are required.

Breaking Away from the Tantalum Trap

In today’s market there is an increasing need for stable voltage in countless applications, particularly for the computers and digital equipment that use powerful microprocessors such as CPUs, ASICs and LSIs. These processors deal with massive volumes of data and require large scale integration and faster clock speeds that call for more load current and in turn, lower operating voltages. The components industry is under pressure to provide solutions that manage the risk of unstable power. Various capacitor technologies are employed in voltage regulators such as tantalum capacitors, aluminum capacitors and for low ESR (equivalent series resistance), polymer capacitors and multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC).

Tantalum Ore: Supply and Conflict Issues

The first technology mentioned above, tantalum capacitors, uses a rare metal (tantalum) as its primary material. This tantalum, which is scarce in nature, is often procured from mines in the Eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo and surrounding countries that are controlled by non-government military groups, or unlawful military factions. The 2010 Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act discourages the use of tantalum, as well as many other minerals, since it is deemed a conflict mineral. Given its scarcity and political mining issues, tantalum has suffered from cyclical shortages. Our industry has seen such shortages in 1997, 2000 and 2008. And, according to industry resources, we are headed for yet another shortage due to the unstable supply of tantalum ore.

Breaking Away from Tantalum Capacitors

To solve this cyclical shortage, and resulting inevitable price increase, now is the time to break away from the tantalum trap. Other types of capacitors have found their way into applications that typically used tantalums. For instance, MLCCs replaced the smaller capacitance tantalums, larger capacitance tantalums were replaced by aluminum capacitors, and in the low ESR arena polymer aluminum capacitors are regarded as an excellent substitute. With an abundant supply of material, aluminum capacitors are one viable option and include a range of products from aluminum polymer capacitors to surface mount (SMT) aluminum capacitors. Polymer aluminum capacitors use polymer as a solid electrolyte, and they boast ESR values as low as 3 mohm at 100 KHz. Polymer offers 10,000 times better conductivity than the electrolyte found in wet aluminum technology, and 1,000 times more than MnO2 used in tantalum technology. Polymer aluminum capacitors have available capacitance ranges from a few microfarads to 560 uF. In addition, they also offer stable capacitance against frequency and temperature changes. SMT aluminum capacitors cover an extensive CV range from 6.3 to 450 V/0.1 to 6800 uF and are available for general purpose to low impedance. State-of-the-art SMT aluminum capacitors use high-conductivity electrolyte,achieving 60 mohm (100 KHz) ESR, which surpasses regular tantalums. When rethinking the entrenched use of tantalum capacitors and viewing capacitor selection from a new perspective, engineers will be able to achieve better designs and reduce costs at the same time.