6/5/2014 Capacitor Lab - Types of Capacitors - Polymer Capacitors

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Polymer Capacitors




Polymer capacitors do not contain electrolyte. Wet Electrolytic capacitors contain a paper
between the anode and cathode foil that is soaked with liquid electrolyte. Polymer
capacitors use a paper which is impregnated with organic semiconductor crystal. It looks
like carbon paper really although it is not. The photo above shows Sanyo OS-CON polymer
capacitors on a 2006 HP DL380G4 server.


Not such a new Technology




Although there are motherboard manufacturers advertising that they are using Polymer
capacitors on their motherboards since 2005-2006. It is not such a new technology. The
above photo shows a CPU board from an old HP server with a Pentium chip on it. The
purple capacitors are also Sanyo OSCON polymer capacitors like in the first photo. Indeed
they were seen more often on server and workstation motherboards before they ever were


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6/5/2014 Capacitor Lab - Types of Capacitors - Polymer Capacitors
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they were seen more often on server and workstation motherboards before they ever were
used on consumer motherboards. In fact they have also been used on graphics cards
longer than on consumer motherboards. Sanyo OSCON went into production first in 1983.

Identifying Polymer Capacitors


Polymer capacitors are distinctive because at reasonably high capacitance values (say
300uf and above) they do not have vents whilst their wet electrolytic counterparts do.
Their tops are completely flat. Due to the lack of liquid electrolyte they will never make
gas when they fail and therefore do not require the vents for the gas to escape. It is
important though not to confuse low capacitance value wet electrolytics (below 330uf)
with polymers because they also do not have vents.


Not a Polymer Capacitor




The above FZ series capacitor is not a polymer capacitor, its just a normal wet electrolytic
without a sleeve. We know this because we can see the K vents at the top of the
capacitor. Still there are a few rare exceptions to the rule, Nichicon HD are not polymers
but do not have visible vents. Fujitsu FPCAPs which are the yellow sleeved ones often
seen on motherboards and graphics cards are a type of polymer cap but do have K vents.


Radial Polymer Capacitors


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The above photo shows Sanyo OS-CON SEPC Series polymer capacitors which are
typically found on the vcore output of motherboards in a row next to the processor. The
ones shown are radial capacitors which means that they have two leads. One lead is
positive and the other is negative. The purple hemisphere on the top of the capacitors
shows which lead is the negative. If we look at the writing on top of the capacitors we
can see that they are SEPC series because that is clearly written there but we can also
see that they are 560uf and are rated for 4v. The numbers right at the top we can ignore
because they are a date code for when the capacitor was manufactured.


Polymer Chip Type SMT Caps




Can type Polymer capacitors are available in radial but also surface mount chip type for
automated installation.



If we take a look at the above 6600gt graphics card we can see three types of polymer
capacitors there. Two of them are chip type, namely the Chemicon PSA series and the
Sanyo OSCON SVP series (of which there are two groups). The last polymer capacitor on
the card is a Skywell SEL series which is a radial capacitor.



The chip type capacitors are soldered on top of the board. This is why they are called
SMT components or surface mount technology. They have two legs, one on either of
opposite sides which stick out horizontally and are soldered to two pads on the board.



If we look carefully at the Skywell capacitor we can see that in fact there is a position
underneath it for soldering an SMT capacitor instead. Therefore the board designer has
given an option as to which type of capacitor can be used, whether radial or chip type
depending on availablility and price.


Surface mount Polymer capacitors more common on Graphics Cards


Whilst surface mount polymer capacitors are common on graphics cards, they not seen so
often on motherboards where radial polymer capacitors are more popular. Radial capacitors
are actually placed on motherboards by hand before the board goes into the solder bath in
the wave solder machine. Surface mount capacitors are placed on the board by machine.
Whilst graphics cards can be mostly assembled by machine, motherboards have much more
larger components which have to be inserted by hand as they are too big for a machine to
handle.


Expensive Caps


Polymer capacitors are many times more expensive than wet electrolytics which is why
they are more often seen on higher value products like graphics cards or high end and
server motherboards.


Not Only a Japanese Product

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Whilst the Japanese brands of Polymer capacitors namely Sanyo, Fujitsu and Chemicon are
very common on motherboards many of the taiwanese capacitor manufacturers now
produce polymer capacitors for motherboards. Even the brands with well known bad
reliability in wet electrolytics produce produce polymer capacitors now but there is still no
reports of widespread problems with their polymer products.


All Polymer Motherboards


In early 2005 evga advertised that they were making NF3 boards with all polymer
capacitors although these were seen to be Taiwanese Lelon brand. Possibly the first
consumer board with all polymer capacitors. Then in Feb/06 DFI advertised their release of
the limited edition LANParty UT NF4 SLI-DR Venus which had all Chemicon PSA series
polymers. In 2007 it became more common for high end consumer boards to have all
polymer capacitors.



Whether all polymer capacitors is necessary in a performance sense is debatable though.
Whilst Intel often uses on their boards a row of Polymer capacitors on vcore output next
to the CPU, they are seen to use Nichicon VR series in the lower parts of the board which
are not even a low esr series. They are definitely useful on vcore however which are
probably the most stressed capacitors on the board.


Benefits of Polymer Capacitors


Polymer capacitors are characterised by lower ESR and ability to handle higher ripple
current than their wet electrolytic counterparts. They are also characterised by not
changing their ESR when their operating temperature changes and also having a much
longer life. Sanyo quotes a 10 times increase in lifetime for a 20degC reduction in
operating temperature for their OS-CON polymer capacitors whist a wet electrolytic
capacitor in comparison would increase lifetime by 4 times.


Low ESR


Low ESR is so important in electronics because the lower the ESR the faster the capacitor
can discharge. This is a great benefit because it means the capacitors can respond faster
to large current transitions. However there are several wet electrolytic capacitors which
offer similar ESR as their polymer counterparts.


High Ripple


The high speed power delivery to the latest CPUs subjects the capacitors in the VRM to
high ripple. This is why you will see polymer capacitors more often on vcore output on the
latest motherboards as they can handle much more ripple than wet electrolytics ever will.
Failure of electrolytic capacitors on vcore output can be partly attributed to exposure to
ripple current that was beyond their specification.


Replacing Wet Electrolytics with Polymer Capacitors


Because some series of Polymer capacitors have lower ESR you can replace wet
electrolytics with them but use about half the capacitance value instead. But it is
important to first check the specification of both capacitors to see that you are not
replacing a wet electrolytic with a polymer that has higher esr. Not all Polymer capacitors
have lower ESR therefore just trying to obtain any polymer capacitor for your modding
project is simply not going to be an upgrade.


Difficult to Obtain


There are a few sources for Polymer capacitors but they are generally more difficult to
obtain than wet electrolytics. Not all of the large distributors stock them.


Are Polymer Capacitors the Final Solution for Motherboards?


Actually Polymer capacitors are not the final solution for motherboards. Eventually the
manufacturers will move to using faster digital VRMs to power CPUs which will have only
small ceramic capacitors.


Do Polymer Capacitors Fail?


Polymer capacitors can fail. If manufacture is not strictly done, moisture can be entrapped
inside the capacitor which can lead to a steady increase in ESR. Polymer capacitors can
also fail open or shorted. It is likely that they will not show any visible signs of failure
though. However we are not seeing reports of failures that would indicate that polymer
capacitors are unreliable.




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