Capacitors

Group 1
Emmannuel C. Caspillo
Darich S. Galang
Steven Myles Perez
✘ Capacitors are one of the fundamental passive
components. In its most basic form, it is composed of two
plates separated by a dielectric.
✘ A capacitor with stored charge can act as a temporary
battery.

✘ The ability to store charge is the definition of

capacitance.

Conducto Dielectric
rs

2
 Capacitance

✘ Capacitance is the ratio of charge to voltage

Q
C
V
✘ Rearranging, the amount of charge on a capacitor is
determined by the size of the capacitor (C) and the voltage
(V).
Q  CV

EXAMPLE:
✘ If a 22 mF capacitor is connected to a 10 V source, the
charge is 3
 Capacitance

✘ An analogy:
✘ Imagine you store rubber bands in a bottle
that is nearly full.
✘ You could store more rubber bands (like
charge or Q) in a bigger bottle
(capacitance or C) or if you push them in
with more force (voltage or V). Thus,

Q  CV

4
 Capacitance
✘ A capacitor stores energy in the form of an electric field
that is established by the opposite charges on the two
plates. The energy of a charged capacitor is given by the
equation
1
W CV 2
2

where:
C = the capacitance in farads
W = the energy in joules
V = the voltage in volts

5
 Capacitance
✘ The capacitance of a capacitor depends on three physical
characteristics.

 A
C  8.85 1012 F/m  r 
 d 
C is directly proportional to
the relative dielectric constant
and the plate area.
C is inversely proportional to
the distance between the plates

6
7
 Capacitor Types
Mica
Mica capacitors are small with high working voltage. The
working voltage is the voltage limit that cannot be
exceeded.

F o il
M ic a
F o il
M ic a
F o il
M ic a
F o il

8
 Capacitor Types
Ceramic disk
Ceramic disks are small nonpolarized capacitors They have
relatively high capacitance due to high er.

L e a d w ire s o ld e re d
to s ilv e r e le c tro d e

S o ld e r

D ip p e d p h e n o lic c o a tin g
C e ra m ic
d ie le c tric S ilv e r e le c tro d e s d e p o s ite d o n
to p a n d b o tto m o f c e ra m ic d is k

9
 Capacitor Types
Plastic Film
Plastic film capacitors are small and nonpolarized. They have
relatively high capacitance due to larger plate area

H ig h - p u rity
f o il e le c t ro d e s

P la s tic fi lm
d ie le c tric

O u te r w ra p o f
p o ly e s te r fi lm
C a p a c ito r s e c tio n
(a lte rn a te s trip s o f
f ilm d ie le c tric a n d
L e a d w ire f o il e le c t ro d e s )
S o ld e r c o a te d e n d
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 Capacitor Types
Electrolytic (two types)
Electrolytic capacitors have very high capacitance but they
are not as precise as other types and tend to have more
leakage current. Electrolytic types are polarized.

_
Al electrolytic

Ta electrolytic

Symbol for any electrolytic capacitor

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 Capacitor Types
Variable
Variable capacitors typically have small
capacitance values and are usually adjusted
manually.
Symbols for the
A solid-state device that is used as a variablecapacitor: (a) fixed;
capacitor is the varactor diode; it is adjusted (b) variable.
with an electrical signal.

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 Capacitors Labeling
Capacitors use several labeling methods. Small
capacitors values are frequently stamped on them
such as .001 or .01, which have units of
microfarads.

VTT
Electrolytic capacitors have larger values, so are
read as mF. The unit is usually stamped as mF, but

VT T
some older ones may be shown as MF or MMF).

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A label such as 103 or 104 is read as 10x103 (10,000 pF) or
10x104 (100,000 pF) respectively. (Third digit is the
multiplier.)
When values are marked as 330 or 6800, the units are
picofarads.

✘ EXAMPLE
What is the value of each capacitor? Both are 2200 pF.
Three ways to increase the area of a capacitor: (a) rolling; (b) stacking; (c) insertion.

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 Series Capacitor
✘ When capacitors are connected in series, the total
capacitance is smaller than the smallest one. The general
equation for capacitors in series is
1
CT 
1 1 1 1
   ... 
C1 C2 C3 CT
✘ The total capacitance of two series capacitorsCis 1
T 
1 1

C1 C2
✘ …or you can use the product-over-sum rule
 Series Capacitor
✘ If a 0.001 mF capacitor is connected in series with an 800
pF capacitor, the total capacitance is 444 pF

C 1 C 2

0 .0 0 1 µ F 800 pF
 Parallel Capacitors
✘ When capacitors are connected in parallel, the total
capacitance is the sum of the individual capacitors. The
general equation for capacitors
C  C  Cinparallel
C  ...Cis
T 1 2 3 n

✘ EXAMPLE:
✘ If a 0.001 mF capacitor is connected in parallel with an 800
pF capacitor, the total capacitance is 1800 pF

C 1 C 2

0 .0 0 1 µ F 800 pF
 Capacitor in DC Circuits
✘ When a capacitor is charged through a series resistor and
dc source, the charging curve is exponential.

C Effect of increasing
values of C (with R
constant) on the
charging curve for
v C.
✘ When a capacitor is discharged through a resistor, the
discharge curve is also an exponential. (Note that the
current is negative.)
R

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 Universal exponential curves
✘ Specific values for current and voltage can be read from a
universal curve. For an RC circuit, the time constant is
100% 99%

τ  RC 86%
95%
98%

80%

Percent of final value

63%
60%

40%
37%

20%
14%
21 5%
2% 1%
0
0 1t 2t 3t 4t 5t
Number of time constants
Universal exponential curves

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 Universal exponential curves
✘ The universal curves can be applied to general formulas
for the voltage (or current) curves for RC circuits. The
general voltage formula is
v =VF + (Vi - VF)e-t/RC

VF = final value of voltage

Vi = initial value of voltage
v = instantaneous value of voltage
The final capacitor voltage is greater than the initial
voltage when the capacitor is charging, or less that the
initial voltage when it is discharging.

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 Capacitive reactance
✘ Capacitive reactance is the opposition to ac by a
capacitor. The equation for capacitive reactance is
1 ω=2πf
XC 
2πfC

✘ The reactance of a 0.047 mF capacitor when a frequency of

15 kHz is applied is 226 W

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 Capacitive phase shift
✘ When a sine wave is applied to a capacitor, there is a
phase shift between voltage and current such that current
always leads the voltage by 90o.
VC
0

90o

I
0 25
 Power in a capacitor
✘ Energy is stored by the capacitor during a portion of the ac
cycle and returned to the source during another portion of
the cycle.
✘ Voltage and current are always 90o out of phase. For this
reason, no true power is dissipated by a capacitor,
because stored energy is returned to the circuit.
✘ The rate at which a capacitor stores or returns energy is
called reactive power. The unit for reactive power is the
VAR (volt-ampere reactive).

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 Switched capacitors
✘ Switched capacitors move charge in a specific time
interval between two points that are different voltages.

✘ The switched capacitors emulate a resistor with a value of

R=1/fC. Switched capacitors are widely used in certain
types of integrated circuits because they can be made
very small, have virtually no drift, and do not dissipate
heat. 0 T / 2 T
Position 1 Position 1 Position 1
I1 1 2
V1 V2
+ C + 27
- - Position 2 Position 2

0 T /2 T
Measurement and Testing of Capacitors

Checking the
dielectric of an
electrolytic capacitor.

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 Selected Key Terms
✘ Capacitor
An electrical device consisting of two conductive plates
separated by an insulating material and possessing the
property of capacitance.
✘ Dielectric
The insulating material between the conductive plates
of a capacitor.
✘ Farad
The unit of capacitance.

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 Selected Key Terms
RC time constant - A fixed time interval set by the R and C values, that determine
the time response of a series RC circuit. It equals the product of the resistance and
the capacitance.

Capacitive reactance - The opposition of a capacitor to sinusoidal current. The unit

is the ohm.

Instantaneous power (p) - The value of power in a circuit at a given instant of time

True power (Ptrue) - The power that is dissipated in a circuit usually in the form of
heat.

Reactive power (Pr ) - The rate at which energy is alternately stored and returned to
the source by a capacitor. The unit is the VAR.

VAR (volt-ampere reactive) - The unit of reactive power.