Hi, first I must say I'm glad that humour still exist among you. When we stop kidding (not insulting) and laughing, the situation is most severe. The world around you today is sad, very sad. And humour (call it bla-bla, as some do...) is a divine gift. Sometimes I feel for slamming my door and leave, so much to do, comrades that die before 40 as a result of this insane econo-technocratic hyperactive world running into the wall,  but it happens that someone crosses my way at those occasions (e.g. TechNet) and tell something that is like sun shining through the clouds. So, please, go on mixing in some pleasure in the techno speaking. Like vitamins, but working in seconds...

Now, about tantalum caps. Anyone out there using tantals with FLEXIBLE terminals? Old model, you recognize that, is with a more or less straight and painted body, terminals silvered, tinned or gold plated, most models for soldering. New since a number of years are those with rectangular body, suitable for P-P, and with sort of flexible ribbon terminal that is bent 90 degrees under the body. Those having these are e.g. Kemet, Sprague, Matsuo, Tekelec, Siemens, NEC, AVX/Kyocera to mention some.  OK, they are all excellent for soldering, but for silver epoxy mounting a minor problem occurs: the epoxy wets, not only the terminal but also the body. Then you loose some of the advantage with flexibility. You find a typical outline in IPC-SM-782 Subsection 8.4.

Question: anyone that pick-and-place such creatures for silverepoxy technology? What terminal finish do you order? And do you utilize the flexibel terminal?  How do you get a recommende epoxy line (50-100um) as the component is heavy, do you use some kind of standoff? Anyone that has centrifuged up to 5,000 G's? Anyone with experience from mounting such caps on Arlene/Roger/Taconic with heavymetal backing?

Normal FR4 indoor products with this cap are normally soldered and there are no obstacles. So, we don't have a general problem, but lack some experience for epoxying in special applications.

Also will come back later with discussion about ceramic caps, ferro/piezo effects, aging and such things that has been up recently. Ousten, France, are you out there? Still working with the  RFceramic characterization project? Lost your e-mail adress.

Ingemar Hernefjord
Ericsson Microwave Systems

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