Supply shortages of raw materials drive up tantalum capacitor prices 3

According to a report by metalgrains, tantalum prices have risen by 120% within a year. Tantalum is difficult to obtain, which means that larger power sources will become more expensive and less efficient. Obviously, rising costs and insufficient supply have a wide-ranging impact on many global products. TTI's Knight said, "Tantalum may become unacceptable once it reaches a certain level, and buyers will consider other technologies." The new technology could be semiconductors or compounds.diode

However, in the short term, there seems to be no material that can perfectly replace tantalum, at least in the production of capacitors. Before the price increase, tantalum was the most efficient and inexpensive material for producing capacitors. Even though semiconductor devices can help replace tantalum in capacitors and resistors (as supply and cost become more common), another challenge currently faced is how to offset the rising cost of tantalum as an additive. For example, the electronics industry has been striving for decades and investing heavily in replacing lead in solder, but the alternatives still cannot achieve the performance of lead containing solder. Developing alternatives is very difficult, especially when the replaced material is still functional.diode