is repeated several times through varying specific gravities of nitrate solution, to build up a thick coat over all internal and external surfaces of the "pellet", as shown in Figure 4. In traditional construction, the "pellet" is successively dipped into graphite and then silver to provide a good connection from the manganese dioxide cathode plate to the external cathode termination(see Figure 5). Production flow The picture below shows the production flow of tantalum electrolytic chip capacitors with sintered anode and solid manganese dioxide electrolyte. Styles of tantalum capacitors Tantalum electrolytic capacitors are made in three different styles: Tantalum chip capacitors: SMD style for surface mounting, 80% of all tantalum capacitors are SMDs Tantalum "pearls", resin-dipped, single-ended style for PCB mounting Axial-leaded tantalum capacitors, with solid and non-solid electrolyte, mostly used for military, medical and space applications. Chip capacitors (case size) More than 90% of all tantalum electrolytic capacitors are manufactured in SMD style as tantalum chip capacitors. It has contact surfaces on the end faces of the case and is manufactured in different sizes, typically following the EIA-535-BAAC standard. The different sizes can also be identified by case code letters. For some case sizes (A to E), which have been manufactured for many decades, the dimensions and case coding over all manufactures are still largely the same. However, new developments in tantalum electrolytic capacitors such as the multi-anode technique to reduce the ESR or the "face down" technique to reduce the inductance have led to a much wider range of chip sizes and their case codes. These departures from EIA standards mean devices from different manufacturers are no longer always uniform. An overview of the dimensions of conventional tantalum rectangular chip capacitors and their coding is shown in the following table: Note: EIA 3528 metric is also known as EIA 1411 imperial (inches). Wet tantalum capacitors The main feature of modern non-solid (wet) tantalum electrolytic capacitors is their energy density compared with that of solid tantalum and wet aluminum electrolytic capacitors within the same temperature range. Due to their self-healing properties (the non-solid electrolyte can deliver oxygen to form new oxide layer in weak areas of the dielectric), the dielectric thickness can be formed with much lower safety margins and consequently with much thinner dielectric than for solid types, resulting in a higher CV value per volume unit. Additionally, wet tantalum capacitors are able to operate at voltages in excess