Conflict Minerals and Cell Phones

Presto Vivace sends in this story at Slate: "If you are reading this on a smartphone, then you are probably holding in your palm the conflict minerals that have sent the biggest manufacturing trade group in the U.S. into a court battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At stake in this battle between the National Association of Manufacturers and the government is whether consumers will know the potentially blood-soaked origins of the products they use every day and who gets to craft rules for multinational corporations—Congress or the business itself. ... These minerals are tantalum (used in cellphones, DVD players, laptops, hard drives, and gaming devices), tungsten, tin, and gold, if they are mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo and surrounding countries including Rwanda, where the mineral trade has fueled bloody conflicts. The rule requiring disclosure of conflict minerals will go into effect in 2014. Congress included it in Dodd-Frank out of concern for what is known as the “resource curse”—the phenomenon wherein poor counties with the greatest natural resources end up with the most corrupt and repressive governments. The money earned from selling the natural resources props up these harsh regimes and funds violence against their citizens and neighbors."

Comments

I heard people die while trying to find them

[mveloso]

What's the point of these kinds of laws? Just like drugs, these resources will make their way to whomever wants to buy them. Where there's a market, there's a way.

Re:let the Congo bombing raids begin

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean going to war for Apple instead of Haliburton... or United Fruit... or pick a large company.

Re:Resource Curse?

[OzPeter]

Add to that list:

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

and

Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq

Tantalum Capacitors

[residents_parking]

Since ceramic got so good, I haven't needed to specify Tantalum in any of my designs for 5 or more years. In my experience, it is mostly inertia / laziness that keeps designers from exploring alternatives.

Like most engineers, I enjoy the challenge when someone says "you have to use tantalum - nothing else will work". True, Y5V Ceramic has highly voltage-dependent capacitance. So what? Often it's ESR and not absolute capacitance you need, anyway.

Re:Tantalum Capacitors

[ebno-10db]

If you need better stability than Y5V, but still need high values in a reasonable size, X5R is good. I haven't used tantalum in 10 years. For electrolytics I find solid electrolyte aluminums are fine for most stuff, and can always be shunted with a ceramic if need be. I've even used these kinds of parts in military designs.

Re:Uses of tantalum?

[ShanghaiBill]

That was my thought as well, tantalum capacitors are used in almost everything.

There are three qualities you want in a capacitor:
1. Cheap
2. Reliable
3. High Capacitance

You can pick any two:
1 & 2 = Ceramic
1 & 3 = Electrolytic
2 & 3 = Tantalum