Technical Articles / Whitepapers

Radiation Tolerance of Tantalum Polymer Capacitors Written By: Krystof Adamek Abstract: Environments rich in ionizing radiation create a particularly difficult functional challenge for electronic components. Spacecraft, nuclear reactors, particle accelerators, and hardened military equipment (to name a few examples) demand that their electrical systems operate correctly, even in the presence of high energy particles, photons, electrons, neutrons, protons, and the like. Such radiation adversely affects electronics in two ways: fundamentally damaging the constituent materials, and creating transient electrical signals that can impede functionality. Mechanisms of radiation induced failure in semiconductors and other active devices have been well-studied, and methods for overcoming or preventing these failures have been developed. Passive devices like inductors, resistors, and capacitors, on the other hand, are

Failure Mode Comparison of Tantalum and Niobium Oxide Capacitors Written By: George Zhang Abstract: The automotive industry has become highly dependent on advanced sensing and computing. Starting in the mid-twentieth century, the development of dense, reliable, and stable capacitors has been instrumental in advancing high speed computing and high performance electronics. The demands on these capacitors have increased substantially, requiring high-temperature tolerance, harsh environmental reliability, and ever-decreasing parasitic parameters such as equivalent series resistance (ESR) and inductance (ESL). Tantalum and niobium oxide capacitors have been two of the most notable contenders to meet these requirements. Though similar in construction, their failure modes are nuanced and require a careful understanding to ensure a successful design for a particular application.

Tantalum Capacitors for Electric Vehicles Written By: Jeff Lee Abstract: An electric vehicle is a car powered by electricity unlike internal combustion locomotives that obtain driving energy by burning fossil fuels, they rotate the motor with electricity accumulated in the battery to obtain driving energy. Electric vehicles are largely composed of on-board chargers (OBC), electric power control units (EPCUs), motors, speed reducers, and high voltage battery. The motor of an electric vehicle is a high-efficiency and high-power driving motor and has high output and rotational power. Unlike internal combustion vehicle engines, the electric motor can be made to minimize noise and vibration generation while driving.