Leaky/Intermittent Tantalum Capacitors

[ppppenguin]

Good quality tants, used correctly, can give a lot of low leakage capacitance in a small space. However many were not either good quality or used correctly and are an utter liability. Notably if they are used as decouplers where there is a significant amount of current available they can be very nasty. I've had one, fitted across the main reservoir in some professional kit, actually catch fire. Had this happened in service (in an unattended area) rather than on my bench the results could have been truly horrible.