Don't mean to beat a dead topic to a second death, but in case you wanted to
know NASA uses tantalums extensively as replacements for electrolytics
on-orbit (on station & shuttle). I don't can't recite the reasoning
verbatim, but it is an M&P (materials and processes) issue, having to do
with operating at low pressures and also the dangers of electrolytics
entering various failure modes due to overheating in space (no
bouyancy-driven convection). Tantalums tend not to fail catastrophically
(pop or explode) when thermally stressed.

Jason Dugas
KB5URQ
NASA-JSC

"Henry Kolesnik" wrote in message
...
Over the last few years I've acquired quite a few consumer electronincs
pcbs
including TVs, VCRs, stereos, etc, so when I discovered that I needed a
tantalum to repair some test equipment I was going to salvage a tantalum.
I
couldn't find one anywhere, so I assume they're too expensive or too
unrelaible for high end consumer electronics. A couple of the boards were
from my personal stuff purchased new. One example is a MGA Mitsubishi
rear
projection TV that operated flawlessly for nearly 20 years of daily use.
Most of my test equipment comes from hamfests and is surplus after
becoming
obsolete and non-operative in less than 20 years. That leads me to wonder
what the real story is behind tantalum capacitors. What do the experts
have
to say?
tnx
hank wd5jfr