Department of Electronics Engg

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PASSIVE COMPONENTS
The term passive component refers to the any device or component, which
does not introduce gain or does not have directional function. Such components
conduct s current in both directions and therefore known as bilateral devices.
Most commonly used passive components/elements are
1) Resistors
2) Inductors
3) Capacitors

1) RESISTORS :
A resister is electrical component, which has been manufactured with
specified amount of resistance. A resistor can conduct current in both directions.
The resistors are mainly used for two purposes, namely to controlling the flow of
current & providing the desired amount of voltage in electric or electronic circuit.

Resistor Specifications:
The resistors are specified in terms of their resistance values, tolerance, power
rating and thermal stability.

CLASSIFICATION OF RESISTORS:
Resistors

Linear Resistors Non-Linear Resistors

Thermistors Photo resistors Varistors

Fixed Variable

Wire Wound Potentiometers Trimmers

Carbon Composition Thin Film Thick Film Wire Wound

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CLASSIFICATION OF RESISTORS:
A ) A R R R

L I N E E S I S T O S

a) Fixed Resistors

i) Carbon Composition Resistors

ii) Thin Film Resistors
- Carbon Film Resistor
- Metal Film Resistor
iii) Thick Film Resistors
- Metal Oxide Film Resistors
- Bulk Property Film Resistors
- Cermet Film Resistors
iv) Wire Wound Resistors

b) VARIABLE RESISTORS

i) Variable Wire Wound

ii) Potentiometers
iii) Trimmers
B ) A R R R

N O N - L I N E E S I S T O S

a) Thermistors
b) Photo resistors
c) Varistors

The above figure shows the classification of resistors in the form of tree. The
resistors are basically of two types, namely Linear and non-linear resistors.
A ) A R R R

L I N E E S I S T O S :

• The resistors through which the current is directly proportional to the

applied voltage is, are called as linear resistors.
• Such resistors have property that their resistance values do not change
with applied voltage, temperature or light intensity.
• They are further divided in to two types Fixed resistors & Variable
resistors.
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B ) A R R R

N O N - L I N E E S I S T O S :

• The resistors through which the current is not directly proportional to the
applied voltage, are called as non linear resistors
• Such resistors have property that their resistance values change with the
variation in applied voltage, temperature or light intensity.
• They are further divided in to three types Thermistors, photo resistors &
Varistors

a) FIXED RESISTORS:

• Fixed resistors are those whose values do not change with variation in applied
voltages, temperature & light intensity.
• Such resistors are available in various shapes and sizes with both axial and
radial leads.

Fixed resistors are of following types.

i) Carbon Composition resistors

These resistors are made by mixing carbon powder and insulating
binders to produce the desired value of resistance.

The resulting resistance values are within ±10 % of desired value,
however the ±5 % tolerances are also obtained through special
techniques.

Usually a resistance element is a simple rod of carbon powder,
which is enclosed in a plastic case for insulation and mechanical
strength as shown in below fig.

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Carbon composition resistors are available in resistance values

ranging from 1 Ω to 22 MΩ and power rating of 1/8, ¼, ½, 1 and 2
Watts.

ii) Thin film resistors

These resistors are made by depositing vary thin layer of
conducting material on an insulated rod, tube or plate made of
ceramic or glass.

Thin film resistors are again divided into following two types
- Carbon film resistors:
They are cheaper than carbon composition resistor. They
have good stability, wide operating frequency range and
low noise.

- Metal film resistors:

These resistors are made by depositing a thin layer of metal
on ceramic or glass rod. The metal film is spiral cut to the
spiral resistance.

iii) Thick film resistors

These resistors are made by technique similar to the thin film
resistors.

Thin film resistors are of following three types;

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- Metal oxide film resistors:

These are manufactured by oxidizing tin chloride on heated
glass substrate. The resulting resistors have low noise and
good temperature stability. They are available in high
voltage ratings and high resistance values.

- Bulk property film resistors:

These are made of metal films, which are photo etched to
provide close resistance tolerances ranging from ± 0.1 % to
1 %. These resistors have extremely low noise. They have
low temperature coefficient and can work at high
frequencies.

- Cermet film resistors:

These are made by placing a coating of metal alloy along
with insulating material on ceramic substrate. The
combination is then fixed into ceramic metal called as
Cermet.

iv) Wire wound resistors

These resistors are made by winding resistive wire such as
nichrome (nicklet & chromium alloy) on ceramic film. The wire is
then coated with an insulative material.

The wire wound resistors are costly as compared to the other
types of resistors.

They have excellent electrical properties such as low noise, good
stability etc.

They cannot be used at high frequency applications due to
inductance and capacitance present in resistors.

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b) Variable resistors:
• These resistors, like fixed resistors are used to control current flow and provide
desired amount of voltage in electric or electronic circuit. The resistance values
of variable linear resistors can be varied from 0 to the specified value.
• Variable resistors are of following three types.

o Variable wire wound resistors:

- These resistors are made of nichrome wire wound around a
ceramic core and covered with an insulative coating. A window is
left in insulting cover, which exposes the resistive wire as shown
in fig (a). An adjustable tap B rides along the exposed wire, which
makes the electrical contact with the wire. Fig (b) is the schematic
symbol of variable wire wound resistor.

o Potentiometer:
- It is a three terminal variable resistor as shown in fig (a). Its outer
terminals are fixed and middle terminal is variable. The variation
is provided by wiper connected to a control shaft. When control
shaft is moved, the wiper moves over a resistive element. This
movement provides continuous variation in resistance between
the middle terminal and either outside terminal.
- The name POTETIOMETER comes from the use of this device as a
potential meter.

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o Trimmers:
- These are used in electronics circuits to trim the circuit to the
required operating conditions by inserting a small screw driver
into a slot and turning one or more times.
- The trimmers are available both in single and multi turns as
shown in fig.

- The materials used in the construction of trimmers are carbon

compositions, carbon film cermets and wire. The trimmers are
available for resistance values ranging from 50 Ω to 5 MΩ, with
power rating of ¼ to ¾ watt.

NON-LINEAR RESISTORS

These resistors are made from semiconducting materials. The non-linear

properties of these resistors arise due to breaking of covalent bonds in
semiconducting materials. The source energy for creating the charge carriers in
semiconducting materials may be voltage, temperature or incident light.
The non-linear resistors are of three types:

a) Thermistors
- A word thermistor stands for thermal resistor i.e. temperature sensitive
resistor.
- It used to detect small change in temperature. The variation in
temperature is reflected through an variation of resistance of device

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- Thermistors with both positive temperature coefficient (PTC) and

negative temperature coefficient (NTC) are available but NTC is most
common.
- Thermistors are manufactured in the form of beads, probes, discs,
washers, and rods as shown in fig.

b) Photo resistors:
- These are also called as photo-conductive cells. The photoresistors are
made from semiconductor materials, whose resistance changes when
illuminated with light energy. Such materials are cadmium sulphide
(CdS), cadmium selenide (CdSe) and lead sulphide (PbS).
- When these materials are exposed to the light, the covalent bonds are
broken. These produces charge carriers. The greater the amount of light
falling on the surface, greater will be the number of electron-hole pairs
generated and therefore lower will be the amount of resistance. The
lower amount of light falling on the surface, higher will be the value of
resistance of the material.

c) Varistors:
- The word varistor stands for variable resistor.
- The varistors are voltage dependant resistors (VDR’s) these are used to
protect the circuitary from high energy voltage transients by rapidly
changing from high stand by resistance to low conducting resistance.
This action of varistor clamps the voltage to the safe level.

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- Typical V-I characteristic curve of varistor is shown in figure. Here the

solid curve represents region for continuous operation and dashed curve
represents surge (transient) response.

- The varistors are available in variety of packages. These are capable of

handling currents up to 2000 A with d.c. operating voltage ranging from
12 V to 660 V and at temperatures from -400C to + 850C

IDENTIFYING RESISTORS

Most axial resistors use a pattern of coloured stripes to indicate resistance.

SMT ones follow a numerical pattern.

4-band axial resistors

4 band identification is the most commonly used

colour coding scheme on all resistors. It consists of four
coloured bands that are painted around the body of the
resistor. The first two numbers are the first two significant
digits of the resistance value, the third is a multiplier, and
the fourth is the tolerance of the value. Each colour corresponds to a certain
number, shown in the chart below. The tolerance for a 4-band resistor will be 2%,
5%, or 10%.

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The Standard EIA Colour Code Table per EIA-RS-279 is as follows:

Colour 1st band 2nd band 3rd band (multiplier) 4th band (tolerance) Temp. Coefficient

Black 0 0 ×100
Brown 1 1 ×101 ±1% (F) 100 ppm
Red 2 2 ×102 ±2% (G) 50 ppm
Orange 3 3 ×103 15 ppm
Yellow 4 4 ×104 25 ppm
Green 5 5 ×105 ±0.5% (D)
6
Blue 6 6 ×10 ±0.25% (C)
Violet 7 7 ×107 ±0.1% (B)
Gray 8 8 ×108 ±0.05% (A)
White 9 9 ×109
Gold ×0.1 ±5% (J)
Silver ×0.01 ±10% (K)
None ±20% (M)

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Calculating Resistor Values

The Resistor Colour Code system is all well and good. The "left-hand" or the
most significant coloured band is the band which is nearest to a connecting lead with
the colour coded bands being read from left-to-right as follows;
Digit, Digit, Multiplier = Colour, Colour x 10 colour in Ohm's (Ω's)
For example, a Resistor has the following coloured markings;
Yellow Violet Red = 4 7 2 = 4 7 x 10 2 = 4700Ω or 4k7.
The fourth band if used, determines the percentage tolerance of the resistor and is
given as;
Brown = 1%, Red = 2%, Gold = 5%, Silver = 10 %
If resistor has no fourth tolerance band then the default tolerance would be at 20%.

B. B. ROY Great Britain has Very Good Wife

Black Brown Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Violet Grey White
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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 Department of Electronics Engg
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INDUCTORS

An inductor or a reactor is a passive electrical component that can store

energy in a magnetic field created by the electric current passing through it.

An inductor's ability to store magnetic energy is measured by its inductance, in
units of henries (H).

Typically an inductor is a conducting wire shaped as a coil, the loops helping to
create a strong magnetic field inside the coil due to Faraday's law of induction.

Inductors are one of the basic electronic components used in electronics
where current and voltage change with time.

IDEAL & REAL INDUCTOR:

An "ideal inductor" has inductance, but no resistance or capacitance, and does
not dissipate or radiate energy.
A real inductor may be partially modeled by a combination of inductance,
resistance (due to the resistivity of the wire and losses in core material), and
capacitance.

TYPES OF INDUCTORS:

The inductors are of two types namely Fixed & Variable inductor depending upon
the type of core, whether it is fixed of variable.

a) Fixed Inductors:
o Air-core Inductor:
This inductor is made of coils of
wire wound on former made of simple
cardboard. The air-core inductor has very
low value of inductance. They are suitable
for Radio Frequency (RF) applications.

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o Iron-Core Inductor:
This inductor is made of coils
of wire wound on solid iron-core. The
iron core is laminated to avoid eddy
current loss. A laminated core
consists of thin iron laminations
pressed together, but insulated from
each other. The iron-core inductors
are very suitable for Audio Frequency
(AF) applications.

o Ferrite-Core Inductor:
This inductor is made of coils
of wire wound on a ferrite-core. A
ferrite is a magnetic material
consisting of fine particles of iron,
cobalt or nickel embedded in a
insulator binder. Ferrite core has very
low eddy current loss, therefore they
are mainly used for high frequency
applications.

b) Variable Inductor:
These inductors are similar to the fixed ferrite-core inductors. But the
core is adjustable. The variable inductors are used intunning and filter
circuits. In acse of large inductance coils, a variable inductor is made of long
coil wound on a ferrite core provided with a slider contact.

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CAPACITORS:

The Capacitor are sometimes referred as a Condenser is an passive device, and

one which stores energy in the form of an electrostatic field which produces a
potential ( S t a ) across its plates.
t i c V o l t a g e

In its basic form a capacitor consists of two parallel conductive plates that are
not connected but are electrically separated either by air or by an insulating
material called the Dielectric.

When a voltage is applied to these plates, a current flows charging up the
plates with electrons giving one plate a positive charge and the other plate an
equal and opposite negative charge. This flow of electrons to the plates is
known as the Charging Current and continues to flow until the voltage across
the plates (and hence the capacitor) is equal to the applied voltage Vc. At this
point the capacitor is said to be fully charged and this is illustrated below.

By applying a voltage to a capacitor and measuring the charge on the plates,

the ratio of the charge Q to the voltage V will give the capacitance value of the
capacitor and is therefore given as:
C = Q/V
this equation can also be re-arranged to give the more familiar formula for the
quantity of charge on the plates as:
Q=CxV

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The unit of capacitance is the Farad (abbreviated to F) named after the British
physicist Michael Faraday.

It is defined as a capacitor has the capacitance of One Farad when a charge of

One Coulomb is stored on the plates by a voltage of One volt.

However, the Farad is a very large unit of measurement to use on its own so
sub-multiples of the Farad are generally used such as micro-farads, nano-
farads and pico-farads, for example.

Units of Capacitance

• Millifarad (mF) 1mF = 1/1,000 = 0. 001 = 10-3 F

• Microfarad (μF) 1μF = 1/1,000,000 = 0.000001 = 10-6 F
• Nanofarad (nF) 1nF = 1/1,000,000,000 = 0.000000001 = 10-9 F
• Picofarad (pF) 1pF = 1/1,000,000,000,000 = 0.000000000001 = 10-12 F.

Types of Capacitors
There are a very large variety of different types of Capacitors available in the
market. Like resistors, there are also variable types of capacitors which allow us to
vary their capacitance value for use in radio or "frequency tuning" type circuits.

1. Dielectric

Dielectric Capacitors are usually of the variable type such as used for tuning
transmitters, receivers and transistor radios. They have a set of fixed plates and a set
of moving plates that mesh with the fixed plates and the position of the moving
plates with respect to the fixed plates determines the overall capacitance. The
capacitance is generally at maximum when the plates are fully meshed. High voltage
type tuning capacitors have relatively large spacings or air-gaps between the plates
with breakdown voltages reaching many thousands of volts.

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Variable Capacitor Symbols

The continuously variable types, preset types are also available called Trimmers.
These are generally small devices that can be adjusted or "pre-set" to a particular
capacitance with the aid of a screwdriver and are available in very small capacitances
of 100pF or less and are non-polarized.

2. Film Capacitors

Film Capacitors are the most commonly available of all types of capacitors.
Film type capacitors are available in capacitance ranges from 5pF to 100uF
depending upon the actual type of capacitor and its voltage rating. Film capacitors
also come in an assortment of shapes and case styles which include:
• Wrap & Fill (Oval & Round) - where the capacitor is wrapped in a tight
plastic tape and have the ends filled with epoxy to seal them.
• Epoxy Case (Rectangular & Round) - where the capacitor is encased in a
moulded plastic shell which is then filled with epoxy.
• Metal Hermetically Sealed (Rectangular & Round) - where the capacitor is
encased in a metal tube or can and again sealed with epoxy.

with all the above case styles available in both Axial and Radial Leads.
Examples of film capacitors are the rectangular metallized film and cylindrical film &
foil types as shown below.

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Radial Lead Type

Axial Lead Type

The film and foil types of capacitors are made from long thin strips of thin
metal foil with the dielectric material sandwiched together which are wound into a
tight roll and then sealed in paper or metal tubes. These film types require a much
thicker dielectric film to reduce the risk of tears or punctures in the film, and is
therefore more suited to lower capacitance values and larger case sizes.

3. Ceramic Capacitors

Ceramic Capacitors or Disc Capacitors as they are generally called, are made
by coating two sides of a small ceramic disc with silver and are then stacked together
to make a capacitor. For very low capacitance values a single ceramic disc of about 3-
6mm is used. Ceramic capacitors have a high dielectric constant (High-K). Ceramic
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capacitors have values ranging from a few picofarads to one or two microfarads but
their voltage ratings are generally quite low.
Ceramic types of capacitors generally have a 3-digit code printed onto their
body to identify their capacitance value.
For example,
1) 103 would indicate 10 x 103 pF which is equivalent to 10,000 pF or 0.01μF.
2) 104 would indicate 10 x 104 pF which is equivalent to 100,000 pF or 0.1μF and
so on.
3) Letter codes are sometimes used to indicate their tolerance value such as:
J = 5%, K = 10% or M = 20% etc.

4. Electrolytic Capacitors

Electrolytic Capacitors are generally used when very large capacitance values
are required. The dielectric is a very thin layer of oxide which is grown electro-
chemically. This insulating layer is so thin that it is possible to make large value
capacitors of a small size. The majority of electrolytic types of capacitors are
Polarized, that is the voltage applied to the capacitor terminals must be of the
correct polarity as an incorrect polarization will break down the insulating oxide layer
and permanent damage may result.

Electrolytic Capacitors are generally used in DC power supply circuits to help

reduce the ripple voltage or for coupling and decoupling applications. Electrolytic's
generally come in two basic forms; Aluminum Electrolytic and Tantalum Electrolytic
capacitors.

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a) Aluminium Electrolytic Capacitors:

- There are basically two types of Aluminium Electrolytic Capacitor, the

plain foil type and the etched foil type.
- The etched foil type differs from the plain foil type in that the aluminium
oxide on the anode and cathode foils has been chemically etched to
increase its surface area and permittivity.
- Typical values of capacitance range from 1uF to 47000uF.
- Aluminium Electrolytic's are "polarized" devices so reversing the applied
voltage on the leads will cause the insulating layer within the capacitor
to be destroyed along with the capacitor.

b) Tantalum Electrolytic Capacitors

- Tantalum Electrolytic Capacitors or Tantalum Beads are available in
both wet (foil) and dry (solid).
- The dielectric properties of tantalum oxide are also much better than
those of aluminum oxide.
- Tantalum capacitors although polarized, can tolerate being connected to
a reverse voltage much more easily than the Aluminum types.
- Typical values of capacitance range from 47nF to 470uF.

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Capacitor Color Codes:

• Generally, the values of Capacitance, Voltage or Tolerance are marked onto

the body of the capacitors.
• When the value of the capacitance is of a decimal value problems arise with
the marking of a "Decimal Point" as it could easily no be noticed resulting in a
misreading of the actual value.
• Instead letters such as p (pico) or n (nano) are used in place of the decimal
point to identify its position.
• For example:
A capacitor can be labelled as, n47 = 0.47nF, 4n7 = 4.7nF or 47n = 47nF.

Capacitor Colour Code Table

Temperature Working
Digit Digit Multiplier Tolerance Tolerance
Colour Coefficient voltage
A B D T > 10pf T < 10pf
TC V
Black 0 0 x1 ± 20% ± 2.0pF
Brown 1 1 x10 ± 1% ± 0.1pF -33x10-6
Red 2 2 x100 ± 2% ± 0.25pF -75x10-6 250v
Orange 3 3 x1000 ± 3% -150x10-6
+100%,-
Yellow 4 4 x10k -220x10-6 400v
0%
Green 5 5 x100k ± 5% ± 0.5pF -330x10-6 100v
Blue 6 6 x1m -470x10-6 630v
Violet 7 7 -750x10-6
+80%,-
Grey 8 8 x0.01
20%
White 9 9 x0.1 ± 10%

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The code consists of 2 or 3 numbers and an optional tolerance letter code.

Where a two number code is used the value of the capacitor only is given in
picofarads (ie. 47 = 47 pF).
A three letter code consists of the two value digits and a multiplier much like a
resistor colour code (ie. 471 = 47*10 = 470pF). Three digit codes are often
accompanied by an additional tolerance letter code as given below.

Capacitor Tolerance Letter Codes Table

Letter B C D F G J K M Z
C <10pF ±pF 0.1 0.25 0.5 1 2
Tolerance
C >10pF ±% 0.5 1 2 5 10 20 +80-20

Consider the capacitor below:

The capacitor on the left is of a ceramic disc type capacitor
that has the code 473J printed onto its body. This translates
to:

47pF * 1,000 (3 zero's) = 47,000 pF , 47nF or 0.047 uF

the J indicates a tolerance of +/- 5%

Then just by using number and Letter codes on the body of the capacitor we can
easily determine the value of its capacitance either in Picofarad's, NanoFarads or
Microfarads and these codes are given in the following table along with the
equivalent capacitances.

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