Polymer And Hybrid Styles Improve Performance And Reliability of Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors

Focus:

Aluminum electrolytic capacitors (Al-Els) are popular in many applications because they offer high capacitance values with high RMS values at low cost, and a wide range of voltage ratings and package styles. But conventional aluminum electrolytics employing a liquid electrolyte have drawbacks such as electrolyte leakage and dryout, which hurt component reliability and limit lifetime. Wet aluminum electrolytics also exhibit higher ESR and greater variation in ESR over temperature versus other capacitor styles. However, the development of conductive polymer and hybrid aluminum electrolytics has increased reliability and alleviated performance limitations versus wet electrolytics, improving the usefulness of Al-Els. This article discusses the benefits offered by recent developments in conductive polymer and hybrid aluminum electrolytic capacitors, and illustrates their use in an example power supply application.

What you’ll learn:

• How to understand the benefits and tradeoffs of conductive polymer and hybrid aluminum electrolytics versus wet aluminum electrolytics
• How to understand the benefits and tradeoffs of wet aluminum electrolytics versus tantalum and niobium electrolytics

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Author & Publication:

Ron Demcko and Daniel West, AVX, Fountain Inn, S.C., How2Power Today, Feb 15 2022

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