Software Tools Select-a-Cap Software According to given application conditions and capacitor requirements (capacitance, case size), the Select-a-Cap tool offers suitable options from AVX’s extensive product range and gives an overview of capacitor ratings for each option. INPUT PARAMETERS • Application voltage • Serial circuit resistance • Maximum current coming from the power supply • Capacitor requirements OUTPUT PARAMETERS • Suggestion of part number • Specification (Cap, DF, ESR, DCL) • Max guaranteed surge current • DCL @ application voltage • Ripple current, ripple voltage • Failure rate, MTBF with temperature SpiTan III Contains typical measured data of almost all released PNs and gives an overview of typical performance characteristic for tantalum and niobium oxide capacitors at different frequencies and temperatures. SpiTanIII does not contain the data from specification (for spec. limits see Select-a-Cap). INPUT PARAMETERS • Selected PN from the list with the help of filter (technology, capacitance, rated voltage, case, series, tolerance) OUTPUT PARAMETERS • Frequency characteristics of capacitance, impedance, ESR, DF for 25°C • Temperature – shows performance according to selected operating temperature • Frequency settings – shows values for given frequency • Menu graph – shows additional performance figures for ripple characteristics (I,V), typical DCL performance within 5 min PSpice PSpice library of tantalum capacitors suitable for high fidelity simulations with most of the PSpice software is available at AVX website. JANUARY 2014 ■ 183