4.7uF electrolytic cap - can be replaced other cap?

In a circuit, do you think I can replace a 4.7uF aluminium electrolytic capacitor with other types of capacitor (e.g. non-polarity, multilayer ceramic, polyester, etc)? Pls advise.

Thanks

4.7µF is just 4.7µF ..
Aluminium electrolytic cap can be replaced with almost everything .. I wouldn't say that the other way around ..
So, if the voltage is right - go ahead ..

Regards,
IanP

IanP said:

4.7µF is just 4.7µF ..
Aluminium electrolytic cap can be replaced with almost everything .. I wouldn't say that the other way around ..
So, if the voltage is right - go ahead ..

Click to expand...

Can I say that aluminium electrolytic (AE) cap can only be applied to 'dc' applications (e.g. as output filter capacitor of a dc-dc converter)?
Thanks

powersys said:

In a circuit, do you think I can replace a 4.7uF aluminium electrolytic capacitor with other types of capacitor (e.g. non-polarity, multilayer ceramic, polyester, etc)? Pls advise.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Your question is incomplete. What is the parameter which is the most important for your application: ESR, size, cost, DC bias characteristics and voltage rate, noise suppresion ?

melc said:

powersys said:

In a circuit, do you think I can replace a 4.7uF aluminium electrolytic capacitor with other types of capacitor (e.g. non-polarity, multilayer ceramic, polyester, etc)? Pls advise.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Your question is incomplete. What is the parameter which is the most important for your application: ESR, size, cost, DC bias characteristics and voltage rate, noise suppresion ?

Click to expand...

Normal application...

powersys,
In most cases, the answer is "yes". The main advantage of aluminum is high volumetric efficiency (for a given CV product, the volume of the capacitor is low). Disadvantages are low reliability, high leakage current, high ESR (compared to film and ceramic types), high tempco.
.
One caveat: In certain voltage regulator applications, stability will suffer if the ESR of the output capacitor is too low. This is a case where worse is better
Regards,
Kral

There cannot be a straight replacement, a standard aluminum capacitor used accross the output of a Regulator may be stable ( due to the higher ESR of the Aluminium cap)
but may become unstable if it is replaced by a Ceramic one which has a very low ESR.
Inform were you are using this capacitor and what you intend to put in its place.