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We are using some tantalum capacitors for some products. for two purpose:

  • Bulk Capacitor
  • Low ESR for MCU power

Recently, we are suffering to get tantalum capacitors. Our supplier is saying that Chinese electric vehicle companies are using huge amount of these. So it makes the shortage of tantalum capacitors

So we need to replace the tantalum capacitors with another type of capacitors.

I think that the characteristics of the replace capacitors for Bulk is not important. So we have only to meet the its capacity, voltage and dimension.

  1. Which types of capacitors will meet for the replacement of bulk tantalum capacitor?
  2. Which types of capacitors will meet for the replacement of low ESR tantalum capacitors?

FYI, I can't change my PCB so the the 2D dimension should be same. (We are using A type and D type tantalum capacitors)

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    \$\begingroup\$ How many uF at what Voltage? I find that for some sizes MLCC are comparable if not cheaper. There are also polymer tantalum, not sure if these are affected by sourcing problems as well? But then I don't really design stuff to be mass produced, this is just my experience on Mouser/digi/arrow/etc.. \$\endgroup\$
    – Wesley Lee
    Jan 12, 2018 at 0:38
  • \$\begingroup\$ @WesleyLee Thanks, we are also suffering to get the MLCC... \$\endgroup\$
    – Blue Cloud
    Jan 12, 2018 at 0:42
  • \$\begingroup\$ How many p/n’s and total qty/yr? No component eng. staff? \$\endgroup\$
    – Tony Stewart EE75
    Jan 12, 2018 at 0:47
  • \$\begingroup\$ @TonyStewart.EEsince'75 I don't want specify the spec because I don't want to make it "commercial" issue. \$\endgroup\$
    – Blue Cloud
    Jan 12, 2018 at 0:50
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    \$\begingroup\$ @RobertEndl - but I don't think I've ever seen them in a package similar to A and D types, would be interesting if you could share some \$\endgroup\$
    – Wesley Lee
    Jan 12, 2018 at 2:30

2 Answers 2

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About the only possible form fit and function equivalent maybe possible are 1206 ceramics for D size.

Cost, Values and pad / stencil size will need review.

https://www.johansondielectrics.com/downloads/JDI-Tanceram.pdf

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POSCAP should be available in relatively large quantity. When I worked on servers doing motherboard power we used these for bulk capacitor on the CPU and memory. They also have really high ripple current ratings.

These are polymer tantalums and you should be able to find these in the same case size. I would recommend using octopart if you're not already familiar with it. For example:

https://octopart.com/search?q=T530D477M2R5ATE006&start=0

In addition, I've also seen power supplies that replace all aluminum electrolytics with ceramics; however, there were considerably more needed in parallel.

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