Session 1.4 Common Electronic Components Capacitors
Session 1.4 Common Electronic Components Capacitors
4
Common Electronic Components: Capacitors
In this session, you will get a good grasp on what capacitor and capacitance are. You will
be able to:
Lecture:
Capacitors
A Capacitor is a passive component that has the ability to store the energy in the
form of potential difference between its plates. It resists a sudden change in voltage. The
charge is stored in the form of potential difference between two plates, which form to be
positive and negative depending upon the direction of charge storage.
A non-conducting region is present between these two plates which is called
as dielectric. This dielectric can be vacuum, air, mica, paper, ceramic, aluminum etc.
The name of the capacitor is given by the dielectric used.
The standard units for capacitance is Farads. Generally, the values of capacitors
available will be in the order of micro-farads, pico-farads and nano-farads. The symbol
of a capacitor is as shown below.
When two plates having same area A, and equal width are placed parallel to each
other with a separation of distance d, and if some energy is applied to the plates, then
the capacitance of that parallel plate capacitor can be termed as −
Where
C = Capacitance of a capacitor
ε0 = permittivity of free space
εr = permittivity of dielectric medium
d = distance between the plates
A = area of the two conducting plates
With some voltage applied, the charge deposits on the two parallel plates of the
capacitor. This charge deposition occurs slowly and when the voltage across the
capacitor equals the voltage applied, the charging stops, as the voltage entering equals
the voltage leaving.
The rate of charging depends upon the value of capacitance. The greater the value
of capacitance, the slower the rate of change of voltage in the plates.
Working of a Capacitor
During this process of charging, the electrons move through the DC supply but not
through the dielectric which is an insulator. This displacement is large, when the
capacitor starts to charge but reduces as it charges. The capacitor stops charging when
the voltage across capacitor equals the supply voltage.
Let us see what happens to the dielectric when the capacitor begins to charge.
Dielectric behavior
As the charges deposit on the plates of the capacitor, an electrostatic field is
formed. The strength of this electrostatic field depends upon the magnitude of charge on
the plate and the permittivity of the dielectric material. Permittivity is the measure of
dielectric whether how far it allows the electrostatic lines to pass through it.
The dielectric is actually an insulator. It has electrons in the outer most orbit of the
atoms. Let us observe how they get affected. When there is no charge on the plates, the
electrons in the dielectric move in circular orbit. This is as shown in the figure below.
When charge deposition takes place, the electrons tend to move towards the
positive charged plate, but still they keep on revolving as shown in the figure.
If the charge increases further, the orbits expand more. But if it still increases, the
dielectric breaks down shorting the capacitor. Now, the capacitor being fully charged,
it’s ready to get discharged. It is enough if we provide a path for them to travel from
negative to positive plate. The electrons flow without any external supply as there are
too many number of electrons on one side and barely any electrons on the other. This
imbalance is adjusted by the discharge of the capacitor.
Also, when a discharge path is found, the atoms in the dielectric material tend to
get to their normal circular orbit and hence forces the electrons to get discharged. This
kind of discharge enables capacitors to deliver high currents in a short period of time,
just as in a camera flash.
Color Coding
Capacitive Reactance
Capacitors in Series
Let us observe what happens, when few Capacitors are connected in Series. Let
us consider three capacitors with different values, as shown in the figure below.
Capacitance
When the capacitance of a network whose capacitors are in series is considered,
the reciprocal of the capacitances of all capacitors, is added to get the reciprocal of the
total capacitance. To get this more clearly,
Following the same formula, if simply two capacitors are connected in series, then
Where C1 is the capacitance across the 1st capacitor, C2 is the capacitance across
the 2 capacitor and C3 is the capacitance across the 3rd capacitor in the above network.
nd
Voltage
The voltage across each capacitor depends upon the value of individual
capacitances. Which means
Where Vc1 is the voltage across the 1st capacitor, Vc2 is the voltage across the
2 capacitor and Vc3 is the voltage across the 3rd capacitor in the above network.
nd
Current
The total amount of Current that flows through a set of Capacitors connected in
series is the same at all the points. Therefore the capacitors will store the same amount
of charge regardless of their capacitance value.
Current through the network,
Where I1 is the current through the 1st capacitor, I2 is the current through the
2nd capacitor and I3 is the current through the 3rd capacitor in the above network.
As the current is same, the storage of charge is same because any plate of a
capacitor gets its charge from the adjacent capacitor and hence capacitors in series will
have the same charge.
Capacitors in Parallel
Let us observe what happens, when few capacitors are connected in Parallel. Let
us consider three capacitors with different values, as shown in the figure below.
Capacitance
The total Capacitance of the circuit is the equivalent to the sum of the individual
capacitances of the capacitors in the network.
Where C1 is the capacitance across the 1st capacitor, C2 is the capacitance across
the 2nd capacitor and C3 is the capacitance across the 3rd capacitor in the above network.
Voltage
The voltage measured at the end of the circuit is same as the voltage across all
the capacitors that are connected in a parallel circuit.
Where Vc1 is the voltage across the 1st capacitor, Vc2 is the voltage across the
2 capacitor and Vc3 is the voltage across the 3rd capacitor in the above network.
nd
Current
The total current flowing is equal to the sum of the currents flowing through each
capacitor connected in the parallel network.
Where I1 is the current through the 1st capacitor, I2 is the current through the
2nd capacitor and I3 is the current through the 3rd capacitor in the above network.
Types of Capacitors
There are many types of capacitors depending upon their function, the dielectric
material used, their shape etc. The main classification is done according to fixed and
variable capacitors.
The classification is as shown in the following figure.
The main classification is just like the above one. The fixed capacitors are the
ones whose value is fixed at the time of manufacturing itself and the variable ones
provide us with an option to vary the value of capacitance.
Variable Capacitors
Let us know something about the variable capacitors whose value alters when you
vary, either electrically or mechanically. Variable capacitors in general consists of
interwoven sets of metallic plates in which one is fixed and the other is variable. These
capacitors provide the capacitance values so as to vary between 10 to 500pF.
The stator is a stationary part and rotor rotates by the movement of a movable
shaft. The rotor plates when moved into the slots of stator, they come close to form plates
of a capacitor. When the rotor plates sit completely in the slots of the stator then the
capacitance value is maximum and when they don’t, the capacitance value is minimum.
The above figure shows a ganged tuning capacitor having two tuning capacitors
connected in a gang. This is how a tuning capacitor works. These capacitors generally
have capacitance values from few Pico Farads to few tens of Pico Farads. These are
mostly used in LC circuits in radio receivers. These are also called as Tuning
Condensers.
Trimmer Capacitors
Trimmer capacitors are varied using a screwdriver. Trimmer capacitors are usually
fixed in such a place where there is no need to change the value of capacitance, once
fixed.
There are three leads of a trimmer capacitor, one connected to stationary plate,
one to rotary and the other one is common. The movable disc is a semi-circular shaped
one. A trimmer capacitor would look like the ones in the following figure.
There are two parallel conducting plates present with a dielectric in the middle.
Depending upon this dielectric used, there are air trimmer capacitors and ceramic
trimmer capacitors. The constructional details of a trimmer capacitor are as shown
below.
One of the two plates is movable, while the other is fixed. The dielectric material
is fixed. When the movable plate is moved, opposite to the area between movable and
fixed electrode, then the capacitance can be changed. The capacitance will be higher if
the opposite area gets bigger, as both the electrodes act as two plates of a capacitor.
The Trimmer Capacitors are easily fixed on a PCB or Printed Circuit Board and
they are mostly used for calibration of equipment.
Fixed Capacitors
The Capacitors whose value is fixed while manufacturing and cannot be altered
later are called as Fixed Capacitors. The main classification of fixed capacitors is done
as polarized and non-polarized. Let us have a look at Non-polarized capacitors.
Non-Polarized Capacitors
These are the capacitors that have no specific polarities, which means that they
can be connected in a circuit, either way without bothering about the placement of right
lead and left lead. These capacitors are also called as Non-Electrolytic Capacitors.
The main classification of Non-Polarized capacitors is done as shown in the
following figure.
Among the types of capacitors, let us first go through the Ceramic Capacitors.
Ceramic Capacitors
The common capacitors used among fixed type are Ceramic Capacitors. The
Ceramic capacitors are fixed capacitors that have ceramic material as a dielectric.
These ceramic capacitors are further classified as class 1 and class 2 depending
upon their applications. For instance, Class 1 has high stability and works best for
resonant circuit applications, while class 2 has high efficiency and gives its best for
coupling applications.
The Film Capacitors are the ones which have a film substance as a dielectric
material. Depending upon the type of film used, these are classified as Paper and Metal
film capacitors.
These film capacitors are both paper dielectric capacitors whereas a paper
capacitor uses a waxed paper while a metallic film capacitor uses a metallized paper.
The arrangement is almost same as shown below.
Paper Capacitors
Paper capacitors use Paper as a dielectric material. Two thin tin foil sheets are
taken and placed between thin waxed or oiled paper sheets. This paper acts as a
dielectric. Now-a-days paper is being replaced by plastic.
These sheets are sandwiched and are rolled into a cylindrical shape and
encapsulated in a plastic enclosure. Leads are drawn out. The following figure shows an
example of Paper Capacitors.
Paper capacitors are available in the order of 0.001µF to 2µF and the voltage
rating can be as high as 2000volts. These capacitors are useful in high voltage and
current applications.
Metal Film Capacitors
Metal Film capacitors are another type of film capacitors. These are also called as
Metal Foil Capacitors or Metallized Paper Capacitors as the dielectric used here is a
paper coated with metallic film.
Unlike in paper capacitors, a film of Aluminum or Zinc is coated on a paper to form
a dielectric in this metallic film capacitors. Instead of Aluminum sheets placing between
papers, the paper itself is directly coated here. This reduces the size of the capacitor.
Other Capacitors
These are the miscellaneous capacitors that are named after the dielectric
materials used. This group includes Mica Capacitors, Air Capacitors, Vacuum Capacitors
and Glass Capacitors etc.
Mica Capacitors
The Mica Capacitors are made by using thin Mica sheets as dielectric materials.
Just like paper capacitors, thin metal sheets are sandwiched with mica sheets in
between. Finally the layers of metal sheets are connected at both ends and two leads
are formed. Then the whole assembly is enclosed in plastic Bakelite capsule. The
following image shows how a Mica capacitor looks like.
Mica Capacitors are available in the range of 50pF to 500pF. The Mica capacitors
have high working voltage up to 500volts. These are most commonly used capacitors
for electronic circuits such as ripple filters, Resonant circuits, Coupling circuits and high
power, high current RF broadcast transmitters.
Air Capacitors
The Air Capacitors are the ones with air as dielectric. The simplest air capacitors
are the ones with conducting plates having air in between. This construction is exactly
the same as the variable tuning capacitor discussed above. These capacitors can be
fixed and variable also but fixed are very rarely used as there are others with superior
characteristics.
Vacuum Capacitors
The Vacuum Capacitors uses high vacuum as dielectric instead of air or some
other material. These are also available in fixed and variable modes. The construction
of these capacitors is similar to vacuum tubes. They are mostly seen in the form of a
glass cylinder which contain inter-meshed concentric cylinders.
The following image shows a variable vacuum capacitor.
The following image shows how a fixed vacuum capacitor looks like
Variable vacuum capacitors are available at a range of 12pF to 5000pF and they
are used for high voltage applications such as 5kV to 60kV. They are used in main
equipment such as high power broadcast transmitters, RF amplifiers and
large antenna tuners.
Glass Capacitors
Glass capacitors are very exclusive ones with many advantages and applications.
As all of the above types, here glass is the dielectric substance. Along with glass
dielectric, Aluminum electrodes are also present in these capacitors. Plastic
encapsulation is done after taking out the leads. The leads can be axial leads or tubular
leads.
Electrolytic Capacitors
The Electrolytic Capacitors are the capacitors which indicate by the name that
some electrolyte is used in it. They are polarized capacitors which have anode (+) and
cathode (−) with particular polarities.
A metal on which insulating oxide layer forms by anodizing is called as
an Anode. A solid or non-solid electrolyte which covers the surface of the oxide layer,
functions as a cathode. The Electrolytic Capacitors have much higher Capacitance-
Voltage CV value than the others, due to their larger anode surface and thin dielectric
oxide layer.
Super Capacitors
The high capacity electrochemical capacitors with capacitance values much
higher than the other capacitors, are called as Super Capacitors. These can be
categorized as a group that lies between electrolytic capacitors and rechargeable
batteries. These are also called as Ultra Capacitors.
There are many advantages with these capacitors such as −
Pseudo Capacitors
These capacitors follow the electrochemical process for the deposition of
charge. This is also called as faradaic process. At an electrode, when some chemical
substance reduces or oxidizes, some current is generated. During such process, these
capacitors store the electric charge by electron transfer between electrode and
electrolyte. This is the working principle of Pseudo capacitors.
They get charged much faster and store the charge as much as a battery does.
They are operated at a faster rate. These are used in tandem with batteries to improve
life. These are used in grid applications to handle power fluctuations.
Hybrid Capacitors
A Hybrid Capacitor is a combination of EDLC and Pseudo Capacitor. In the Hybrid
capacitors, activated carbon is used as cathode and the pre-doped carbon material acts
as anode. Li ion capacitor is the common example of this type. The following figure
shows different types of Hybrid Capacitors.
They have high tolerance in a wide range of temperature variations from -55°C to
200°C. Hybrid capacitors are also used in airborne applications. Though cost is high,
these capacitors are highly reliable and compact. These are rugged and can tolerate
extreme shock, vibration and pressure from environment. Hybrid capacitors have higher
energy density and higher specific power than any electrolytic capacitor.