An update on plain old passives

摘要

There have been a surprising number of improvements in plain old standard passives in recent years, and articles in this issue will point out some of them. We have higher performance in inductors with higher current ratings for a given size because of improved core material. We also get much better tantalum capacitors. The size of a 100-μF 6.3-V tantalum/tantalum polymer capacitor has come down from 100 mm~3 to as low as 9.8 mm~3 in the last 8 to 10 years - without a lot of fanfare, so you may not have really noticed.