Niobium capacitor
The development of solid electrolyte tantalum capacitors began in the early 1950s as a miniaturized, more reliable low-voltage support capacitor to complement the newly invented transistor. The solution found by R. L. Taylor and H. E. Haring of the Bell Labs was based on experience with ceramics. They ground down tantalum to a powder, pressed this powder into a cylindrical form and then sintered the powder particles into a pellet (“slug”) at high temperatures, between 1500 and 2000 °C, under vacuum conditions. These first sintered tantalum capacitors used a non-solid electrolyte not consistent with the concept of solid state electronics. 1952 a targeted search in the Bell Labs for a solid electrolyte by D. A. McLean and F. S. Power led to the invention of manganese dioxide as a solid electrolyte for a sintered tantalum capacitor.
Capacitor
The simplest model capacitor consists of two thin parallel conductive plates each with an area of formula_3 separated by a uniform gap of thickness formula_4 filled with a dielectric with permittivity formula_5. It is assumed the gap formula_4 is much smaller than the dimensions of the plates. This model applies well to many practical capacitors which are constructed of metal sheets separated by a thin layer of insulating dielectric, since manufacturers try to keep the dielectric very uniform in thickness to avoid thin spots which can cause failure of the capacitor.