[time-nuts] 5070B once more.... (actually 5370A fans)

Rick Karlquist richard at karlquist.com
Fri May 22 22:40:08 UTC 2009


Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
> It is worth pointing out that a very large fraction of all electronics
> failures are not semiconductors but electrolytic capacitors.
>
> People are often astonished when I tell them, that a "long life"
> electrolytic capacitor is one which will last one year at its rated
> temperature, whereas a standard consumer-grade will last only a
> month.

Len Cutler apparently knew that.  On the 5071A project, we had long
meetings about which capacitor to use in the power supply filter.  Len
wanted to use a mil spec tantalum for reliability, but the cost was
astonomical for the large capacitance we needed.  We talked him into using
a really good aluminum one.

Rick Karlquist





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