# Electronic – Replacing Tantalum capacitor

capacitorpictantalum

I'm going to make a PIC programmer, so currently I'm acquiring parts that I'll need. And here's the one part that I can't get:

C2 - 22uF / 16V tantalum or 47uf / 6.3V tantalum
This is a high speed capacitor and should be a tantalum type.


That's what it says in the tutorial.

So my question is: Can I replace this tantalum capacitor with \$22\mu F\$ / higher voltage or \$47\mu F/ 10V\$ or something like this? I'm confused because in tutorial they are using \$47\mu F/6.3V\$ as replacement …

How do I know how many farads I need ?

Thanks

I would guess that \$22\mu F\$ is the minimum capacitance that the application can use.
Part characteristics can differ as their voltage rating increases, so be careful not to go 'too' high. (Don't put a 100V capacitor where there once was a 16V part). I would wager that if you can get something between \$22 \mu F\$ and \$47 \mu F\$ in 25V, you'll be fine.
You may also be able to use multilayer ceramic capacitors in parallel to get \$22\mu F\$ - just don't use electrolytic. Electrolytic capacitors are not 'high speed' due to their intrinsic parasitic characteristics.