Capacitors

Definition Basic Capacitor functions Labeling Parallel and Series Capacitors Resistors and Capacitors in DC circuits Practical Capacitors
Diagrams and other materials may be from Paynter

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

Capacitors in DC Circuits

Readings from Text Sections 12.1 p 354 to 359 Section 12.2 p 359 to 361 Section 12.5.4 p 370 to 372 Section 12.5.5 p 373 Ch 16 p. 494 to 515

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

Capacitors
Definition A capacitor consists of two conductive plates separated by an insulator. (sometimes called a dielectric)

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

Capacitors
The plate-insulator structure allows charge (Q) to be built up on the plates when a voltage is applied. As the charge builds up a voltage is created across the capacitor until it is equal to the supply voltage. When this occurs no more charge will be built up (no current will flow) and steady-state is said to be reached.

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

Capacitors
For example, when a 12 V supply is connected to an initially uncharged capacitor, current will flow from the supply until the capacitor voltage reaches the supply voltage (12 V). Once the voltages are equal no current will flow and no charge can build up on the capacitor plates. Before switch closes.
J1 Key = Space 12V C1 1F + 00.000 V

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

Capacitors
After the switch closes the capacitor will charge until its voltage is equal to the source voltage.
J2 Key = Space

Before closing

12V C2 1F + 00.000 V

J1 Key = Space 12V

After closing

C1 1F

+ -

12.000 V

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

Capacitors
If the switch is then opened the capacitor will remain charged (at 12 V) as there is no path for current to flow and dissipate the charge.

Switch closed then opened. The capacitor remains charged

J1 Key 12V C1 1F + 12. V e

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

Capacitors
If a path is provided to discharge the capacitor by allowing its charge to dissipate, the capacitor voltage will go to zero Volts.
J1 Key V1 12V J2 e Key

*Remember capacitors oppose a change in voltage and in order for the capacitor voltage to change it must either build up or dissipate charge, either way the final current will be zero Amperes.
ECT 125 Week 1 Part I 8

C1 + 1F -

Capacitors

Perform Class Activity 1

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

Capacitors
The capacitance of a capacitor is measured by how much charge it will store for a given voltage applied across its plates and is measured in Farads (named after Faraday). One Farad is equal to 1 Coulomb of charge per Volt. See the examples shown below.

In example a) the capacitance would be 3 F In example b) the capacitance would be 6 F and In example c) the capacitance would be 1.5 F
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Capacitors

Capacitor Labeling
Large Capacitors (1 QF or larger) usually have the capacitance value printed on the side of the capacitor as shown in the picture below.

The voltage on the label is the maximum operating voltage.

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Capacitors
Smaller Capacitors are usually stamped with a 3 digit code. The first two digits represent the value of the capacitor while the three digit represent the power of 10 to multiply by. The starting point is pF. For example 272 is 27 x 102 pF = 2700 pF or 2.7 nF 474 is 47 x 104 = 470,000 pF or 470 nF Extremely small capacitors use only two digits and are in pF. For example 22 is 22 pF 47 is 47 pF

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Capacitors
Capacitance The capacitance of a capacitor depends upon three factors; the area of the plates, the permittivity of the dielectric between the plates and the distance between the plates.

IA C! d
Where A = area of plates d = distance between plates I = permittivity of the dielectric Often I is broken down into 2 parts I = Io Ir Io= permittivity of free space = 8.854 x 10-12 F/m and Ir = relative permittivity (also called dielectric constant)
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Capacitors
Example A capacitor has plates 20 cm by 20 cm separated by a distance of 5 cm with an insulation of Mylar. Mylar has a dielectric constant of 3.1. A = 0.2 x 0.2 = 0.04 m2 d = 0.05 m I = 3.1x (8.854 x 10-12) = 27.4474 pF/m

I d

27.4474 x10 12 0.04 21.96pF 0.05

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Capacitors
Capacitors in parallel When capacitors are placed in parallel, the effective area of the plates is increased, therefore so does the total capacitance. For the example shown below the plate area doubled and so would the total capacitance.

When Capacitors are in parallel, the capacitors are added.

T

~
15

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

Capacitors
Example Three capacitors of 20 F, 12 F and 6 F are placed in parallel. The total capacitance will be found as follows.

C T ! C1  C 2  C3 ! 20  12  6 ! 38 F
Notice that the total capacitance increases when capacitors are in parallel.

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors

Perform Class Activity 2

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors
Capacitors in Series When capacitors are placed in series the overall effect is to increase the distance between the plates causing the total capacitance to decrease. In the example shown below the capacitance would be halved.

For capacitors in series, the total capacitance is calculated as

CT !

1 1 1 1    ... C1 C 2 C3
ECT 125 Week 1 Part I 18

Capacitors
Example Three capacitors of 20 F, 12 F and 6 F are placed in series. The total capacitance will be found as follows.

1 1 ! ! 3.33F CT ! 1 1 1 1 1 1     C1 C 2 C3 20 12 6
Notice that for capacitors in series, the total capacitance is smaller than the smallest capacitor.

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors

Perform Class Activity 3

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors
Capacitors in DC circuits When resistors and capacitors are both placed in DC circuits interesting things happen. Firstly, the resistors limit the amount of current that can flow, this means that the capacitor can not charge or discharge immediately but will take some time to do so. For example say we have a 6 V supply, a 1 ; resistor and a 3 F capacitor in a series DC circuit. In order for the capacitor to charge to 6 V it will need 18 C of charge to be built up (6 V x 3 F ). As the capacitor starts with no charge is voltage will be 0 V and the resistor will drop all the voltage. This will limit the amount of current that will flow to a maximum of 6 Amperes. ( The supply voltage (6V) divided by the resistance (1 ;)). As this current flows and charge builds up on the capacitor its voltage rises. This causes the voltage across the resistor to fall and therefore so does the current. So as the capacitor charges, the current decreases and it charges slower and slower.
ECT 125 Week 1 Part I 21

Capacitors
As can be seen from the previous example, it takes a very long time (theoretically forever) for the capacitor to fully charge. It is not practical to wait forever so it was decided to pick a time where the capacitor voltage was close enough. The value chosen was 5 time constants. A time constant is equal to R x C and is given the symbol X pronounced tau. In the previous example X would be equal to 1 x 3 = 3 s. So it would take 15 seconds to fully charge the capacitor. If a 7 F capacitor and a 20 ; were used, X would be 140 s and it would take 700 seconds for the capacitor to fully charge.

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors
The same process occurs when the capacitor is discharged. It will take 5 time constants to fully discharge the capacitor. For example if a 4 F capacitor was charged to 20 V and was discharging through a 3 ; resistor the time constant would be 12 s and it would take 60 seconds for the capacitor to fully discharge. The links show applets of a charging and discharging capacitor. Charging Capacitor Charging and Discharging Capacitor Time constant

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors

Perform Class Activity 4

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors
The mathematical description of charging and discharging capacitors uses the e operator. e or I in some texts is the natural base. It is a number that occurs in nature like but has a value of 2.71.. To find its value more precisely type 1 then ex on your calculator (or the opposite order on some calculators). For a charging capacitor the voltage will be given by;
t X Vc ! VS 1  e

Where Vs is the supply voltage X is the time constant RC Hint: As t gets larger e-t/ X goes to zero, meaning that eventually the capacitor voltage will be equal to Vs.
ECT 125 Week 1 Part I 25

Capacitors
The graph of the capacitor charging voltage has this shape. This curve is sometimes called the universal curve as it occurs very often in nature.
Charging Capacitor Voltage
1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0 1 2 3 4 5

Capacitor Voltage

Time in time constants

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors
Example R = 2 ;, C = 4 F and Vs = 10 V X=8s At t = 0 s
t 0 8 X Vc ! VS 1  e ! 101  e ! 0V

At t = 5 s

5 1  e 8 ! 4.65V Vc ! 10

At t= 40 s

40 8 Vc ! 101  e ! 9.93V

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors
Remember the capacitor current decreases with time and will also be zero after 5 time constants. The equation for the current in a charging capacitor is given by;

Ic !

Xt e ! I

Xt ax e

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors
The charging capacitor current will have this shape
C
1 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0.1 0 0 1 i 2 i i 3 4 5

Cu

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors
For the same example X = 8 s and Imax = 10V/2; = 5 A At t = 0 s

Xt 80 I c ! I ax e ! 5 e ! 5A
30 8 I c ! 5 e ! 0.118A

At t = 30 s

At t = 40 s

40 8 I c ! 5 e ! 33.7mA

*Remember that the capacitor current always goes to zero after awhile.

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors
For a discharging capacitor the mathematical expressions are given by;

Xt Vc ! Vinitial e

Vinitial e Ic !

t X

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Capacitors
The discharging capacitor voltage will have this shape
Di
1 0. 0. 0. 0. 0.5 0.4 0.3 0. 0.1 0 0 1 i 2 i i 3 4 5

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors
The discharging capacitor current will have this shape
Disc a ing Ca acitor Current
1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 Time in time constants

Note the Voltage and current both go to zero and have the same shape for a discharging capacitor.
ECT 125 Week 1 Part I 33

Ca acitor current

Capacitors
Example A 10 F capacitor charged to 20 V is discharged through a 3 ; resistor Vinitial = 20 V, C = 10 F and R= 3 ; X = 30 s

At t = 0 s

0 Vc ! 20 e 30 ! 20V
0 20V 30 e ! 6.67 A Ic ! 3;

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors
Example Continued At t = 10 s
10 30 Vc ! 20 e ! 14.33V 10 30 e ! 4.78A

20 Ic ! 3
At t = 40 s
c

40 30 ! 20 e ! 5.27
40 30 e ! 1.76A

20 Ic ! 3

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors
Example Continued At t = 90 s
90 30 Vc ! 20 e ! 0.996V 90 30 e ! 0.33A

20 Ic ! 3
At t = 150 s
c

150 30 ! 20 e ! 134m

150 30 e ! 44.9mA

20 Ic ! 3

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors

Perform Class Activity 5

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors
If a pulsing DC (square wave) is applied to a series capacitor and resistor the capacitor will alternately charge and discharge as the pulsing DC goes from a high voltage to a lower voltage as shown below provided that the pulses are at least 5 time constants long.

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors

Perform Class Activity 6

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors
Practical Capacitors Capacitors are not perfect and actually have some leakage through the insulating dielectric material between the plates. Typically this is quite a large value and has a resistance of several MegaOhms. As a result it can often be ignored. When it can not be ignored a practical capacitor is modeled as shown below.

R_Leakage

ECT 125 Week 1 Part I

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Capacitors
Summary Capacitors oppose a change in voltage. Capacitance = charge stored/voltage applied measured in Farads Capacitors in parallel increase total capacitance Capacitors in series decrease total capacitance Charging or discharging takes 5 X and X =RC Charging

t Vc ! V 1  e X

V Ic ! s R

Xt e ! I

Xt ax e

Discharging
Xt Vc ! Vinitial e
V I c ! initial R
t e X
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ECT 125 Week 1 Part I