Capacitors Blog

The low leakage and high capacity of tantalum capacitors favors their use in sample and hold circuits to achieve long hold duration, and some long duration timing circuits where precise timing is not critical. They are also often used for power supply rail decoupling in parallel with film or ceramic capacitors with low ESR and reactance at high frequency. Tantalum capacitors can replace aluminum electrolytic capacitors in situations where the external environment or dense component packing results in a sustained hot internal environment and where high reliability is important. Equipment such as medical electronics and space equipment that require high quality and reliability make use of tantalum capacitors.

Low-voltage tantalum capacitors are commonly used in large numbers for power supply filtering on computer motherboards and in peripherals due to their small size and long-term reliability.

When applying tantalum capacitors, the possibility of thermal runaway (see above) or spontaneous short-circuiting is usually considered. In many cases, a failed capacitor will cause termination of normal circuit operation, but no other ill effects. However, if sufficient power is available, catastrophic thermal runaway may cause a fire or small explosion. If this situation is a possibility, external current limiting (e.g. thermal fuse, circuit breaker) is often used to prevent catastrophic failure.