Electrolytics run dry - everything you wished to know!

10-28 — elektor october 1982 electrolytics run dry When deciding which capacitors to use, consideration should be given to re- liability, the permissible range of oper- ating conditions, size and so on. Size is important especially when building high density circuits, and last but not least price. Keep in mind, that, any need for special current limiting resistors is going to increase the overall cost of using tantalums. Even so, tantalum capacitors are used widely, where the operating characteristics of the capacitor is critical. Quite a few Elektor circuits specify the use of tantalums, and not just because they are small and good to look at. They have a stable capacitive value, and a long shelf life. The impedance is vir- tually unaffected by frequency changes. So, on the face of it tantalums are ideal. However, they do have one major draw- back; price! applications, and certainly fell down, for high frequency designs. From the offset for many applications the tantalums did n...