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AssigneeCabot Corporation
InventorsJames A. Fife, David A. Knudson, Prabhat Kumar, Viren Pathare
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Tantalum electrode material is produced which has extremely low tortuosity, exceptionally low ESL and ESR, potentially extended high frequency performance, very high volumetric efficiency, and reduced tantalum consumption per electrode. The electrode material is characterized by having a cross-section composed of plates of tantalum separated by spaced gaps resulting in a highly dense (volumetric efficiency) electrode. The plates are electrically interconnected which also adds to the structural stability of the article. This is made possible by being able to carefully control the geometry of the tantalum material during processing. A method for producing such material includes extruding a billet filled with a (preferentially geometrically uniform) mixture of rods of tantalum and an extrudable metal. When the billet has been sufficiently reduced in size and severed, the extrudable metal is removed by selectively dissolving with acid. In addition to the above advantages, the resulting article is particularly adapted for use in super-miniaturization applications.
Valve metal material particularly adapted for electrode use having a cross-section of thin plates of valve metal of controlled thickness, the plates separated from each other by spaced gaps of predetermined and controlled dimensions, said plates being electrically continuous by virtue of metallurgical contact at points of plate intersection or through valve metal interconnection of the plates at selected points within said cross-section and said structures being structurally stable and having non-tortuous porosity.
A method of making a valve metal article particularly adapted for electrode use comprising substantially filling a billet can with valve metal and ductile auxiliary metal in a prearranged pattern of valve metal spaced apart by gaps caused by the presence and arrangement of the ductile auxiliary metal, reducing down the billet to a predetermined size, removing the ductile metal, and generating a layer of valve metal oxide on the exposed valve metal surfaces.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.