4© KEMET Electronics Corporation • KEMET Tower • One East Broward Boulevard T2029_TSP • 8/27/2018
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 USA • 954-766-2800 • www.kemet.com
4
KEMET Organic Capacitor (KO-CAP®) – Industrial
Tantalum Stack Polymer (TSP) Electrolytic Stack, 3 – 63 VDC
Reliability
KO-CAP capacitors have an average failure rate of 0.5 %/1,000 hours at category voltage, UC, and category temperature, TC.
ThesecapacitorsarequaliedusingindustryteststandardsatUC and TC. The minimum test time (1,000 or 2,000 hours) is
dependent on the product series.
The actual life expectancy of KO-CAP capacitors increases when application voltage, UA, and application temperature, TA, are
lower than UC and TC. As a general guideline, when UA < 0.9 * UC and TA < 85°C, the life expectancy will typically exceed the
useful lifetime of most hardware (> 10 years).
ThelifetimeofaKO-CAPcapacitorataspecicapplicationvoltageandtemperaturecanbemodeledusingtheequations
below.Afailureisdenedaspassingenoughcurrenttoblowa1-Ampfuse.Thecalculationisanestimationbasedon
empirical results and is not a guarantee.
TAF = e[ ( )]
Ea
k
1
273+TA
1
273+TC
TAF = acceleration factor due to temperature, unitless
where:
Ea = activation energy, 1.4 eV
k = Boltzmann’s constant, 8.617E-5 eV/K
TA = application temperature, °C
TC = category temperature, °C
VAF = ( )
UC
UA
n
VAF = acceleration factor due to voltage, unitless
where:
UC = category voltage, volt
UA = application voltage, volt
n = exponent, 16
AF = VAF * TAF
AF = acceleration factor, unitless
where:
TAF = accerlation factor due to temperature, unitless
VAF = acceleration factor due to voltage, unitless
* AFLifeUA ,TA= LifeUC ,TC
LifeUA, TA = guaranteed life application voltage
and temperature, years
where:
AF = acceleration factor, unitless
LifeUC, TC = guaranteed life category voltage
and temperature, years
Reliability Table 1 – Common temperature range classications
85°C (TR) /
85°C (TC)
Rated Voltage (U
)2.5 4.0 6.3 8.0 10.0 12.5 16.0 20.0 25.0 35.0 50.0 63.0 75.0
Category Voltage (U
)2.5 4.0 6.3 8.0 10.0 12.5 16.0 20.0 25.0 35.0 50.0 63.0 75.0
105°C (TR) /
105°C (TC)
Rated Voltage (T
)2.5 4.0 6.3 8.0 10.0 12.5 16.0 20.0 25.0 35.0 50.0 63.0 75.0
Category Voltage (U
)2.5 4.0 6.3 8.0 10.0 12.5 16.0 20.0 25.0 35.0 50.0 63.0 75.0
105°C (TR) /
125°C (TC)
Rated Voltage (T
)2.5 4.0 6.3 8.0 10.0 12.5 16.0 20.0 25.0 35.0 50.0 63.0 75.0
Category Voltage (U
)1.7 2.7 4.2 5.4 6.7 8.4 10.7 13.4 16.8 23.5 33.5 42.2 50.3
Terms:
Category Voltage, UC : Maximum recommended peak DC operating voltage for continuous operation at the category temperature, TC
Rated Voltage, UR : Maximum recommended peak DC operating voltage for continuous operation up to the rated temperature, TR
Category Temperature, TC : Maximum recommended operating temperature; voltage derating may be required at TC
Rated Temperature, TR : Maximum recommended operating temperature without voltage derating; TR is equal to or lower than TC