capacitors....

[eyevancsu]

is there any advantage with using ceramic, tantalum, electrolytic etc capacitors. any prefered use for any of these or can they be easily interchanged.<p>ivan

[russlk]

It would be unwise to interchange these types of caps unless you know what parameters are important in the circuit. Ceramic caps have low leakage and some are low loss at high frequency; they are non-polar.The temperature characteristic of ceramics ranges from NPO (Negative-Positive-zero) to +80%-20% (Z5U). Tantalum caps are polarized, operate at higher temperatures and have lower leakage than aluminimum electrolitics. The main advantage of aluminium electrolytics is low cost and can be made to operate at high voltage.

[chessman]

And also, Tantalum caps are preferred for bypass applications to filter noise from a supply line for ICs. They're used because of their great high-speed operation characteristics.

[Dimbulb]

Tantalum’s low Equivalent Series Resistance ESR is used in computer com
Lines where aluminum electrolytics are prone to failure and reduce space in cellular phones. In analog systems Tantalums are more immune to current spikes but are often used at
Half the voltage rating. When concidering oscillation problems low leakage may may be the way to go. Testing time can be reduced by using these here and there
Sparingly as they can be more expensive. Niobium has been tried as a replacement (higher density) not sure what these will be good for from an experimenters aspect could be interesting.<p>
The ceramic diks are flat ie not wound and introduce less inductance. Fair general bypassing.
I like NPO 's in radio because thermal stability can reduce frequency drift.<p>http://www.interq.or.jp/japan/se-inoue/e_capa.htm<p>[ April 04, 2003: Message edited by: 1206DX ]</p>

[eyevancsu]

thanks alot for the help guys, useful site 1206dx!<p>ivan

[Edd]

Also there’s a lot more tech info and projects at the home of that reference at its translated site:
http://www.hobby-elec.org/e_menu.htm <p>……….the cursor tracking is a bit distracting……..like having a string of bubble gum stuck to your foot !<p>73's de Edd
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