Scintillation breakdowns in tantalum capacitors

Scintillations in tantalum capacitors are momentarily local breakdowns terminated by a self-healing, or conversion of the manganese oxide used as a cathode to a high-resistive mode. Similar breakdown events are often considered as nuisances, rather than failures. The author argues that a time-dependent sustained scintillation breakdown can be considered as a major reason of failures during steady-state operation of the capacitors. Analysis of distributions of scintillation breakdown voltages and assessment of the safety margins are critical to assure high quality and reliability of tantalum capacitors