Taintalum Caps

Larry,

It is generally bad practice to place high profile parts, like TANTalum Capacitors on the bottom side. They are more likely to shadow, and also, the odd termination that covers only a very small part of the body makes it prone to solder skips as well.

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Your tantalum capacitor supplier offers the best advice.

We're not sure of the package that you plan to use. * If you are referring to molded package, surface mount, tantalum caps, yes, they can be wave soldered. Smaller case size chips (eg, Kemet A/3216 size and B/3528 size or equivalent) can be wave soldered routinely on the bottom side of the board in the wave. We don't try to wave the larger sizes, because they are usually too tall and/or too heavy. * If you are referring to through-hole, leaded types, they can certainly be wave soldered as any other through hole type, the part is mounted on top side of board with leads through holes. Don't let the bodies of these parts rest on the board. Fabricators assemble leaded types with solder to make the internal cathode connection. So, if the bodies get too hot, it is possible to reflow that solder and cause open circuits.

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I guess it depends on the size of the cap. I find that shadowing of other parts is the problem with Tant-caps.

Tell the Gurus to stop picking on your Mom.

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