Conformal Coating Guide for Conformal Coated Tantalum Capacitors 2

Some metals form dense, stable, tightly bonded, electrically insulating oxides. These are known as "valve" metals, including titanium, zirconium, niobium, tantalum, hafnium, and aluminum. Only a few allow electrochemical precision control of oxide layer thickness. Among these, the most valuable for industrial applications are aluminum and tantalum. Capacitors serve as the foundation for various electrical devices, ranging from radios and televisions to missile control systems and automotive ignition. Their function is to store an electric charge for later use. A capacitor consists of two conductive surfaces, typically metal plates, which serve as conductors. They are separated by an insulating material or dielectric. The dielectric used in all tantalumdiode electrolytic capacitors is tantalum pentoxide. Tantalum capacitors often exhibit a higher capacitance-to-volume efficiency ratio compared to aluminum electrolytic capacitors. The approximate capacitance-to-volume efficiency of other types of capacitors can be inferred from the following table, which displays the dielectric constant ranges for various materials by type. Note that tantalum pentoxide has a dielectric constant of 26, approximately that of aluminum oxide. In addition, during the electrolysis process, thin films can be deposited in front, enabling tantalum capacitors to achieve a high number of effective microarrays per unit volume. The capacitance of any capacitor is determined by the surface area of the two conductive plates, the distance between the plates, and the dielectric constant of the insulating materialdiode