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Re:An alternative to solid tantalum capacitors by dragontamer on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @09:03AM (#13985710)
Ceramic Caps have extremely low ESR as well however.
Re:An alternative to solid tantalum capacitors by the-dude on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @09:06AM (#13985744)
Well, show me a 10uF, 10V below 1 Ohm.
Re:An alternative to solid tantalum capacitors by dragontamer on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @09:15AM (#13985858)
Ummm.....

http://psearch.en.murata.com/capacitor/product/GRM219R61A106...

Try below 0.01 Ohms, between the frequencies of 100Hz to 1MHz, in the 0805 form factor. 10uF and 10V as requested.

Ceramics are extremely good at low ESR / low ESL / decoupling applications. I mean, so are Tantalum caps, so they're both good for this purpose. If anything, Ceramics might have better ESR.

Re:An alternative to solid tantalum capacitors by the-dude on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @09:29AM (#13985987)
He, thank you very much, I will look into this. As a self-taught electronics designer ( https://mecoffee.nl ) I find the amount of different components ( at Farnell, Mouser et al ) absolutely intimidating.

Could you provide some insight into why for tantalums the ESR is specified, while for these ceramics they are not? How should I go about filtering them at Farnell/Mouser ?

Thanks again.

Re:An alternative to solid tantalum capacitors by dragontamer on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @09:32AM (#13986015)
> Could you provide some insight into why for tantalums the ESR is specified, while for these ceramics they are not?

Ceramics are highly frequency dependent. Almost every parameter changes with frequency: capacitance, ESR, ESL... you gotta look at charts.

For the most part, when picking a Ceramic Cap... you pick a dielectric (NP0 for voltage and temperature stability and accuracy... X5R for "high" values like 10uF).

> How should I go about filtering them at Farnell/Mouser

The only methodology that seems to work for me is to learn the various types of dielectrics. For the most part, the properties of NP0 ceramic capacitors are the same across all the companies.

Class 1 (typically NP0) and Class 2 (typically X7R... but X7S, X5R or whatever is fine) are your main types. Class 1 for temperature and voltage stability and accuracy at the nanoFarad range, Class 2 for "high" values like 10uF.

Re:An alternative to solid tantalum capacitors by 2bluesc on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @10:27AM (#13986496)
Should check out this from an expert who knows! I learned more in this video then almost anything else.

http://hackaday.com/2016/07/09/capacitors-are-simple-right/

https://youtu.be/ZAbOHFYRFGg

Re:An alternative to solid tantalum capacitors by the-dude on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @10:31AM (#13986535)
This seems to be a reasonable article about low ESR selection : https://abacus.avnet.com/wps/portal/abacus/article/understan...
Re:An alternative to solid tantalum capacitors by brandmeyer on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @04:26PM (#13990244)
MLCC are used in broader-frequency applications. The loss angle tangent varies much less than ESR over frequency, and so MLCC caps (and film caps at higher voltages) are more likely to specify the loss angle tangent instead.
Re:An alternative to solid tantalum capacitors by xiaopanga on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @09:43AM (#13986112)
the ESR on MLCCs are negligible