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EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT MODEL FOR TANTALUM AND NIOBIUM

OXIDE CAPACITORS FOR USE IN SIMULATION SOFTWARE


J. Pelcak
AVX Czech Republic s.r.o., Dvorakova 328, 563 01 Lanskroun, Czech Republic
Phone: +420 465 358 127 Fax: +420 465 358 128, email pelcakj@avx.cz

ABSTRACT 0
R16

5k
0
In electrical circuit simulations with simulation R13
100M C7
NOJC686K 006R
software, ideal passive components (resistors, R5 Q3 L1
capacitors, inductors) are typically used because 5k C3
100n
R6
68 Q2N3703
0.9mH + + R10
5
Q4
real component characteristics have been difficult 6
1 3 U1
R7
Q2N3703
C6
0 0
0
to model. Unfortunately, ideal and real passive 15 F
VIN E
R
C
S
O
150 NOJC686K 006R

7 V 12
components have significant differences in their 6
1
CT
RT
C_A
E_A
11
R8
2
D1
ERR-
electrical behavior. These differences lead to 2
ERR+ C_B
E_B
13
14
2k
1
120NQ045

4
discrepancies between actual hardware performance 5 CL+
P
DCL- M
T
U 0 0
N O
and expected results based upon simulation G C
H
S
C1
0
software programs. 0
8 9 1R1
50k
R12 +
100M
TA JA106K016R L1
0.9mH
This paper will describe the development of 0
C1
1n 0
equivalent circuit diagram for modeling real 0 R2
+
C8
+
C9
+
C10
+
C11
0 1
capacitor behavior. Use of this real model in SG1524B
0 0
simulation software can help make circuit 0 0 0
TPSV108K004R0035 TPSV108K004R0035
development more efficient, as the circuits in the TPSV108K004R0035
TPSV108K004R0035 C2
simulations should have similar behavior to the +
actual circuits. TPS D107K010R0050
The model presented here includes real component
behavior for Tantalum and Niobium Oxide
capacitors, with all factors such as ESR and parasitic parameters depends on manufacturing
inductance, and even includes the dependence on technology, methods and material systems. The
temperature. non-ideal parameters have significant influence on
filtering, smoothing and other functions in
electronic applications.
INTRODUCTION

All real components including capacitors have CHARACTERISITCS OF A REAL


parasitic factors not taken into account in ideal CAPACITOR
models. These factors can have a major impact on
electrical behavior within a circuit. Better For a real capacitor, the capacitance value generally
understanding of real capacitor behavior can help to decreases with increasing frequency due to ESR,
create more accurate solutions for circuit and there is a peak at the resonance frequency
development. The use of an equivalent circuit that because of parasitic ESL.
accurately represents the true behavior of a The dielectric of a real capacitor is not an ideal
capacitor will yield a better understanding of insulator, so there is a leakage current through the
response in the electrical circuit. component. Furthermore, Tantalum and Niobium
Oxide capacitors are polar components, and due to
the MIS structure [1] of the capacitor, the leakage
COMPARISON OF IDEAL AND REAL
behavior under reverse voltage is similar to a
CAPACITORS
diodes VA characteristic - with a sharp knee at
An Ideal capacitor has only a capacitance value, about 10% of rated voltage.
which does not depend on frequency, temperature, These parameters vary with temperature, which has
applied voltage, and has no parasitic equivalent a measurable influence on the entire circuit
series resistance (ESR), equivalent series behavior, especially for low power applications.
inductance (ESL), and leakage current (LI). These are some of the reasons that real capacitors
Real capacitors have a capacitance value that varies demonstrate significantly different performance
with frequency, temperature and applied voltage, versus ideal capacitors.
and also has significant ESR, ESL and LI parasitic
electrical parameters. The magnitude of these
EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT DIAGRAM FOR A Resistor RLI describes leakage current (LI) through
REAL CAPACITOR the component, because the value of resistor RLI
represents a linear change in the modeled
An equivalent circuit diagram has been developed capacitors leakage current over application voltage
from ideal passive and semiconductor components range (figure 4).
(C, R, L, and D) to simulate the actual behavior of 1.6

Tantalum and Niobium Oxide capacitors. The

Leakage current (uA)


equivalent circuit diagram is shown in figure 1. 1.2

RRS
S R
R00
0.8
LLS
S C0
C0 R1
R1 R
R22 R
R33 R
R44 R5
R5
+
0.4
D
DRR
C1
C1 C
C22 C3
C3 CC44 C5
C5
RRLI
LI 0
RD
RD
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Application voltage (V)
-

Figure 1: The structure of equivalent circuit Figure 4: Leakage current representation in V-A
diagram (independent on temperature) characteristic

The equivalent circuit consists of a ladder of ideal Equivalent resistance of leakage current could be
resistors R1, R2, R3, R4, R5 and capacitors C1, C2, easy recalculated trough Ohms law RLI=VA/LI
C3, C4, C5 to describe decreasing capacitance from known application voltage VA and resistance
(Figure 2) and drop in ESR (Figure 3) with LI.
200
Capacitance Since Tantalum and Niobium Oxide capacitors are
polar components with MIS (Metal Insulator
Semiconductor) structure [1], the electrical
Capacitance (uF)

100 behavior in reverse voltage is different from that


under regular polarization [2]. In the reverse mode,
0 tantalum and niobium oxide dielectrics are modeled
by a diode DR and resistor RD integrated in the
equivalent circuit diagram. The diode DR has a bend
-100
100 1000 10000 100000 1000000
at approximately 10% of the capacitors rated
frequency (Hz) voltage to describe the real change of capacitors V-
A curve. Serial resistance RD describes the slope of
Figure 2: Capacitance behavior through the V-A characteristic after the bend. The diode DR and
frequency range serial resistance RD do not have any influence on
ESR
10 leakage current of the capacitor since the diode DR
has negligible current in the diodes reverse mode.
Detailed view of the reverse voltage behavior is
1
visible in figure 5.
ESR (Ohm)

10
0.1
Reverse current (mA)

6
0.01
100 1000 10000 100000 1000000 4
frequency (Hz)
2
Figure 3: Reaction of ESR through the frequency
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
increasing frequency, which is characteristic of Reverse voltage (V)
capacitors in general. The increased ESR level at
low frequencies is described by the resistor R0 and Figure 5: Reverse mode V-A characteristic
capacitor C0 in parallel combination. The
capacitance C0 is many times higher than nominal EXPLANATION OF TEMPERATURE
capacitance of the capacitor, because this C0 DEPENDENT CAPACITOR MODEL
capacitance represents static electric charge on the
capacitor. Self-inductance of the capacitor is The equivalent circuit diagram includes
modeled by the parallel combination of inductance temperature dependences, even though this is less
LS and resistance RS to create a self-resonance significant for Tantalum and Niobium Oxide
behavior with the rest of circuit capacitance. capacitors than for other technologies (tantalum
Rs should attenuate the peak pulse of the self- polymer, aluminum polymer, high CV ceramic
resonance cycle. components etc.).
There are no voltage dependences included in the 30

model, since Tantalum and Niobium Oxide

Resistance (MOhm)
25
capacitor characteristics are independent of DC bias 20
voltage. 15
Real capacitors are temperature dependent and thus
10
the components from the equivalent circuit are
functions of temperature as is shown in figure 6. 5

RRS RR0 0
S 0(T)
-60 -20 20 60 100 140
LLS C0C0
(T) R1R1
(T) R4R4
(T) R5R5
(T) Temperature (C)
S R2R2
(T) R3R3
(T)
+

Figure 8: Temperature dependent value of


D
DRR

RLI(T)
RLI
C
C1 (T)
1 C
C22(T) C
C3 (T)
3 CC44(T) C
C5 (T)
5 equivalent RLI over temperature
RD (T)
R D

-
TANTALUM AND NIOBIUM OXIDE
Figure 6: The structure of equivalent circuit CAPACITOR MODEL LIBRARY USED IN
diagram with temperature dependent components SIMULATION SOFTWARE
The temperature dependence is accounted for by
making resistor and capacitor values in the model Today, simulation software is a nearly
functions of temperature: (R1(T), R2(T), R3(T), indispensable tool in efficient and flexible
R4(T), R5(T)) and (C0(T), C1(T), C2(T), C3(T), development and design of electronic equipment.
C4(T), C5(T)). This mathematical explanation of The equivalent circuit models developed for
temperature behavior can describe capacitance, Tantalum and Niobium Oxide capacitors have been
ESR and Impedance reaction of the capacitor across assembled into a library for use in this simulation
the frequency spectrum. Figure 7 shows the software. As described above, these models have
capacitance and ESR response through temperature been tuned to match the measurements of the actual
and frequency range. components so that the model will yield the same
Capacitance
performance in the simulation circuit as the actual
200 component would in the real circuit. Figure 9 shows
Capacitanc e
200
Capacitance (uF)

100

Temperature -55C
Capac itanc e (uF)

Temperature 25C 100


0
Temperature 85C
Temperature 125C
0
-100
100 1000 10000 100000 1000000
frequency (Hz)
-100
ESR
10 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000
fre que ncy (Hz)
Temperature -55C
Temperature 25C ES R
10
1 Temperature 85C
ESR (Ohm)

Temperature 125C

1
ES R (Ohm )

0.1

0.01 0.1
100 1000 10000 100000 1000000
frequency (Hz)

0.01
Figure 7: Capacitance and ESR behavior through 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000
the frequency range with temperature dependence fre que ncy (Hz)

The leakage current of the capacitor is even Figure 9: Matching real measurement and
logarithmically temperature dependent and this simulation response of equivalent circuit
influence is included in the RLI(T) temperature
function, which means that the temperature is a key how closely the behavior of the capacitor model
influence on leakage current magnitude. The matches the actual component.
leakage current can be transformed to the Each library consists of two files: a netlist file,
RLI(T)=VA/LI(T) by Ohms law and its exponential which includes a network of ideal components that
explanation can looks like the equation (1) below represents the equivalent circuit diagram (Figure 6),
with detailed graphical view to plot in figure 8. including temperature dependences, and a
component symbol file that contains symbols that
RLI (T ) = RLI 25c 1.39 e 0.013T (1)
represent the components on the circuit diagram.
The libraries contain models for all AVX Tantalum
and Niobium Oxide capacitors, and can be imported 20u

into PSpice and other popular simulation software. 0

[3]. Capacitance
The next chapter will describe the use of the library 10

in creating simulation circuits. 1.0

These libraries are intended for use in both 100m

frequency and transient simulations over the full 1.0K


ESR

operating temperature range of each component. A


complete designed circuit diagram could be built 1.0

from many types of components (transistors, 10Hz 100Hz 1.0KHz 10KHz 100KHz 1.0MHz 10MHz
Impedance
resistors, capacitors, diodes, inductors, integrated Frequency

circuits, etc.). One such circuit diagram is shown in Figure 12: Capacitance, ESR and Impedance
figure 10. behavior of simulated real capacitor
0
R16

5k
0

R11
R13
100M C7
NOJC686K006R
Figure 13 shows a circuit diagram used to compare
0.1
R5 Q3 L1
the level of smoothing given by tantalum and
+

+
C5 C4 5k C3 R6 0.9mH R10
100n 68 Q2N3703 5
V2 Q4
16

0 0 C2 C1
3

U1 Q2N3703 0
TPSD336K025R0200 20n R7 C6 0
R1 L1 TAJA226K006R
OSC
VREF

TPSD336K025R0200 15 150 NOJC686K006R 0


V1 VIN
20V 7 12
CT C_A
2

6 11
R3 1 RT E_A R8 D1
5k 2 ERR-
ERR+ C_B
13 2k 120NQ045 0.5 50uH

+
14
1

0
4 E_B R2
COMP

CL+
SHUT

5
5
GND

R4 CL- 0 0
5k
10
8

0 R1 R12
0 50k 100M R3
0
C1 V1 1u
1n 0
0 V2 = 5
0 PER = 1u
SG1524B PW = 0.5u
C2
R4
Figure 10: Example of circuit diagram suitable for L2 22u_10V_Y5V

simulation 0.5 50uH


R6
5
For many practical purposes, the simulation result
can be considered identical to what would be R5
1u
measured on the physical circuit. And simulation of
the circuit is more efficient and more flexible than
assembling the circuit from real components on a Figure 13: Circuit diagram of output passive filters
PCB, which can result in reduced overall time-to- comparison
market.
ceramic capacitors in output passive filters. The
output voltage ripple is shown in figure 14.
EXAMPLE OF CIRCUIT DIAGRAM
2.325V
CREATION WITH SIMULATED AND 2.321V

MEASURED RESULTS 2.318V

2.315V
V(tantalu m)
This section gives examples creating circuit
2.316V
diagrams, their subsequent simulation, and results. 2.315V

R1 2.315V
1 V(ceramic)

5.0V
V1
1V 2.5V
+

C3 0V

590us 591us 592us 593us 594us


TAJA226K004R V(input) V(tantalu m) V(ceramic)
Time

0 0 Figure 14: Simulation result of ripple voltage


Figure 11: Basic circuit diagram of real capacitor
simulation In this case, the tantalum capacitor has a smoother
voltage ripple characteristic V(tantalum) than the
Components are basically dragged and dropped ceramic V(ceramic), where voltage spikes are
onto the worksheet to create the circuit diagram present, although overall output filtering is similar.
(Figure 11). In this example the capacitor is For comparison, the same circuit was assembled
connected with a sweeping source to demonstrate from actual components, and the measurements are
frequency response of electrical parameters and shown in figure 15.
evaluate real capacitance, ESR and impedance
characteristics. The results are shown against
measurement of the actual device in figure 12.
C1 4n
2.17V

R1 L1
2.165V
in out
input V1 90nH
0.01
2.16V
+ + R2
V(tantalu m)
+ C2 + C5
0.36
2.1495V
V2
2.1490V
0.1V 0 0 0
2.1485V NOJD337K004R
2.1480V NOJD337K004R
V(ceramic)

5.0V 0
2.5V

0V
Figure 18: Circuit diagram for simulation of
94us
V(input)
95us
V(tantalu m) V(ce ra mic)
96us 97us 98us DC/DC converter output filter
Ti me
3 . 0V

Figure 15: The result of measured ripple voltage


level
2 . 0V

A comparison of the simulation and measurements


shows no significant differences. This proves the
accuracy of the simulation. To a large extent, 1 . 0V

measurement can be replaced by simulation to yield


a shorter development cycle. 0V
0s 5u s 10 u s 15 us 2 0 us 2 5u s 30 u s 35 us 4 0u s
The last example demonstrates the flexibility of V( i n ) V( o ut )
Ti me

simulating a real DC/DC converter (Figure 16). An


Figure 19: Simulation result voltage transient of
DC/DC converter before and after output passive
filter

SUMMARY

An equivalent circuit diagram for capacitors has


been developed because of the need to include the
non-ideal aspects of a real capacitors behavior.
Figure 16: Physical DC/DC converter
These models for all Tantalum and Niobium Oxide
actual DC/DC converter was measured and
capacitors have been assembled into a library that
overloaded to create higher output voltage ripple to
can be incorporated into simulation software.
demonstrate that even an overloaded DC/DC
converter can be successfully simulated.
The library of electronic components for simulation
The input and output voltage levels are shown in
software is a useful tool for fast, flexible electronic
graphs of figure 17. The DC/DC converter was
circuit design and development.
3

2.5 Component files from the library can be freely and


widely used for frequency, transient, AC and DC
Voltage (V)

1.5 analysis with real temperature behavior.


1
Examples were used to demonstrate the use of
0.5
models of a variety of components together with
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
models of Tantalum and Niobium Oxide capacitors
Time (us) to efficiently create an accurate circuit simulation.
Figure 17: Measured result of voltage transient
real DC/DC converter before and after output REFERENCES
passive filter
[1] J.Sikula et al., Tantalum Capacitor as a MIS
both modeled in the simulation software and Structure; CARTS USA 2000, 102-106
created from real circuit components (Figure 18). [2] A.Teverovsky, Reverse Bias Behaviour of
Figure 19 shows the result of the simulation. Here Surface Mount Solid Tantalum Capacitors;
also the simulation result is identical to the CARTS USA 2002, 105-123
measurement of the actual device, further proving [3] Penzars TopSPICE (www.penzar.com)
the correct functionality of the equivalent circuit includes real Tantalum and Niobium Oxide
diagrams. capacitors libraries into simulation software

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