Radial lead capacitors are still very much in demand for many traditional applications such as equipment power supplies for general purpose and telecoms systems, and high voltage power supplies used in medical instrumentation, primarily manufactured using conventional through-hole assembly techniques. However, with the RoHS Directive about to come into force, equipment manufacturers need to ensure they have access to compliant components without changing their designs.
Available in both X7R and ultra-stable COG dielectrics, the standard ranges of RoHS compliant radial lead capacitors are offered in voltages from 50V to 5kV. COG parts come in capacitance values from 3.9pF to 180nF, while the X7R families range from 100pF up to 4.7mF.
All devices in all the ranges can be assembled on to boards using both conventional wave soldering, and also the higher temperature lead-free wave soldering techniques.
However some equipment, particularly safety critical products destined for certain industry sectors such as military, space and aerospace, is currently exempt from the RoHS Directive. There is continuing concern over the risk to reliability of tin ‘whiskers’ forming on tin leads. For these customers, Syfer still supports a tin-lead finish across its radial lead capacitor ranges.