Environmentally Induced Failure Mechanisms For Surface Mount Tantalum Capacitors

摘要

Surface mounted solid tantalum capacitors can be incredibly reliable components when properly screened and applied. However, for continued reliability during insertion into hardware and beyond, the capacitor also has to be adequately environmentally sealed to prevent poisoning of the various internal interfaces. Two failure mechanisms that can occur when external contamination breaches the device will be described along with tests to diagnose these conditions.