Solid capped capacitors

jewii · 19 Sep 2010 at 18:22

hey i'm writing my personal statement, & i'm trying to make my statement about longlife stand, the example would solid capped capcitors which are used in motherboards for longer life. anyone know why they last longer? is it to prevent heat or is it like to keep the current value of capacitor the same for longer?

MikeHunt79 · 19 Sep 2010 at 18:30

Normal electrolytic capacitors contain a gooey substance called electrolyte, which after a few years use loses it's gooeyness, because it dries up. This results in the capacitor losing it's capacitance and other bad things.

Solid caps don't dry out over time as they are already dry, so they will last a lot longer, but I'm not sure exactly how long but they are much better in terms of lifespan.

jewii · 19 Sep 2010 at 18:43

oh thanks cheers, just the fact about what type of component you use, will have a longer life it will have.

PhillyDee · 19 Sep 2010 at 18:44

Typical for standard is 3000 hours, solid ones are 15000

jewii · 19 Sep 2010 at 19:15

hmmm i think i may have already met them but simply called "non-electrolic capacitors" or can solid capped capacitors hold big values of farads like electroylic capacitors? because non-electrolic capacitor can only hold small values?

MikeHunt79 · 19 Sep 2010 at 19:24

jewii said:
hmmm i think i may have already met them but simply called "non-electrolic capacitors" or can solid capped capacitors hold big values of farads like electroylic capacitors? because non-electrolic capacitor can only hold small values?

Capacitors can be made from many things. Solid electrolytic caps do exist, along with other types of caps like polypropylene or even paper in oil but electrolytic caps tend to have the highest capacitance/cost ratio.