Patent ID: 8562765

Claim:
A method for heat treating a chemically reduced tantalum powder having one or more of the following properties: BET: 0.1 to 12.0 m 2 /g Scott density: 15 to 40 g/inch 3 Particle size as determined by SEM: 0.02 to 10 μm, and/or Fisher sub sieve size: 0.15 to 10 μm, and wherein said method comprising heat treating said chemically reduced tantalum powder that is in a flowable state with microwave energy at a level of from about 0.5 to about 10 GHz to form an agglomerated heat-treated powder, and then crushing or milling said agglomerated heat-treated powder to form a heat-treated flowable powder that has a powder size of less than 420 microns, and wherein said heat-treated flowable powder when formed into a capacitor anode, has a higher capacitance capability compared to the same powder heat treated in a furnace.