Capacitor types used on Pi 3

[gamemaniac]

What are all the types of capacitors used on board (PCB) Raspberry PI 3 B?

[Heater]

Why do you need to know?

And what doubts do you have?

And why is your thread title nothing to do with the question you ask?

I would expect the usual assortment of SMD ceramic, electrolytic and perhaps tantalum.

[gamemaniac]

I know the Raspberry Pi 3 B uses SMD capacitors but I do not know if it uses tantalum, ceramic or electrolytic

[Heater]

But why does it matter ?

[gamemaniac]

I'm studying electronic pi 3

[MarkTF]

Tantalum capacitors are a specific type of Electrolytic capacitors generally used because they have somewhat better high frequency characteristics with the disadvantage of costing more than aluminum oxide electrolytics. One would need the bill of material to know for certain, but the large value chip capacitors on the board are probably tantalum. The low value capacitors (>~ 1 uF) are almost certainly ceramic. I have no special insight into the Pi, but this is standard practice. The Compute Module schematics are available so you could see generally what values are being used.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... EMATIC.pdf

[gamemaniac]

what capacitor type used in raspberry pi 3? smd tantalum or smd ceramic or other?

[davidcoton]

One would need the bill of material to know for certain, but the large value chip capacitors on the board are probably tantalum. The low value capacitors (>~ 1 uF) are almost certainly ceramic.

That is the fullest answer you are likely to get unless and until RPF decide to release the BOM -- not likely any time soon.

[W. H. Heydt]

I'm studying electronic pi 3

In that case, shouldn't you be do some, you know, *research*, rather than asking on a public forum where you are exceedingly unlikely to find anyone who actually *knows*?

I would suggest a low power microscope to read the marking on the components and then looking them up in manufacturers catalogs to see what they are.

[pksato]

Hi,
If have marking on capacitor (not on pcb) it can be a aluminum or tantrum electrolytic, and is polarized.
If not have marking, is a multilayer ceramic.

[gamemaniac]

which the official email raspberry PI3 hardware support? maybe they show me the information of the capacitors

[SonOfAMotherlessGoat]

which the official email raspberry PI3 hardware support? maybe they show me the information of the capacitors

Not going to happen...

[rpdom]

which the official email raspberry PI3 hardware support? maybe they show me the information of the capacitors

There isn't one.

If you have a problem with your hardware you can contact your supplier and they may arrange a replacement.

They will not disclose what components are use in the manufacture of the device.

[bensimmo]

They can only assume they will not say. I don't know the reasons you want to know other than curiosity, which is not a bad thing.

I'm curious to know why the material matters in your research? Have you worked out the other parts?

Anyway, their official communications are on this page. https://www.raspberrypi.org/contact/
Hope you find out what you need and please report back, it's always interesting to find things out.

[gamemaniac]

there is a hardware problem if I buy a raspberry pi 3 and storage for many years unused? that's why I asked what type of capacitor used in pi 3

[SonOfAMotherlessGoat]

They use SMD caps, not the electrolytic capacitors that were known to 'fail' in sometimes rather spectacular ways.

Not sure what the use case is for buying and storing unused for many years, why not just wait until you need them in a few years and buy the latest model then?

[gamemaniac]

smd ceramic or smd tantalum
?

[SonOfAMotherlessGoat]

How does the material used affect your storage situation?

[plugwash]

One would need the bill of material to know for certain, but the large value chip capacitors on the board are probably tantalum. The low value capacitors (>~ 1 uF) are almost certainly ceramic. I have no special insight into the Pi, but this is standard practice.

It used to be, but larger ceramics (10uF and more) have got competitive in logic-voltage (<=5V) applications recently and with modern high-speed switching converters there is less need for "bulk capacitance" than there used to be.

You can often guess the type of capacitor from the physical appearance. Ceramics are usually tan-colored (the exact shade varies), have contacts in the form of end-caps and have no markings to identify their value. Tantalums are usually found in yellow or black plastic cases with marking on them identifying their values and contacts on the bottom only. I have occasionally seen a tant in a package with end caps and no markings but it was still bright yellow.

I don't have any inside information but my reckoning is that all the capacitors on the Pi3 are ceramics.