Patent ID: 7678175

Claim:
A high purity powder, wherein the powder is selected from the group consisting of tantalum metal powders and tantalum alloy powders, wherein the powder has the following particle size distribution as determined using a Malvern Mastersizer 2000 particle size analyzer without ultrasonic treatment: i) 90% of the particles have a particle size of 252 microns or less, ii) 50% of the particles have a particle size of 50 microns or less, and iii) 10% of the particles have a particle size of 8 microns or less and wherein said powder contains less than 5 ppm of chromium, less than 5 ppm of iron, less than 5 ppm of nickel, less than 10 ppm of potassium and less than 1 ppm of sodium.