Introduction to Capacitors

[Link]

Introduction to Capacitors

Capacitors are simple passive device that can store an electrical charge on their plates when
connected to a voltage source

In this introduction to capacitors tutorial, we will see that capacitors are passive
electronic components consisting of two or more pieces of conducting material
separated by an insulating material. The capacitor is a component which has the
ability or “capacity” to store energy in the form of an electrical charge producing a
potential difference (Static Voltage) across its plates, much like a small rechargeable
battery.
There are many different kinds of capacitors available from very small capacitor
beads used in resonance circuits to large power factor correction capacitors, but they
all do the same thing, they store charge.
In its basic form, a capacitor consists of two or more parallel conductive (metal) plates
which are not connected or touching each other, but are electrically separated either
by air or by some form of a good insulating material. This insulating material could be
waxed paper, mica, ceramic, plastic or some form of a liquid gel as used in
electrolytic capacitors.
As a good introduction to capacitors, it is worth noting that the insulating layer
between a capacitors plates is commonly called the Dielectric.

A Typical Capacitor
Due to this insulating layer, DC current can not flow through the capacitor as it blocks
it allowing instead a voltage to be present across the plates in the form of an electrical
charge.
The conductive metal plates of a capacitor can be either square, circular or
rectangular, or they can be of a cylindrical or spherical shape with the general shape,
size and construction of a parallel plate capacitor depending on its application and
voltage rating.
When used in a direct current or DC circuit, a capacitor charges up to its supply
voltage but blocks the flow of current through it because the dielectric of a capacitor
is non-conductive and basically an insulator. However, when a capacitor is connected
to an alternating current or AC circuit, the flow of the current appears to pass straight
through the capacitor with little or no resistance.
There are two types of electrical charge, a positive charge in the form of Protons and a
negative charge in the form of Electrons. When a DC voltage is placed across a
capacitor, the positive (+ve) charge quickly accumulates on one plate while a
corresponding and opposite negative (-ve) charge accumulates on the other plate. For
every particle of +ve charge that arrives at one plate a charge of the same sign will
depart from the -ve plate.
Then the plates remain charge neutral and a potential difference due to this charge is
established between the two plates. Once the capacitor reaches its steady state
condition an electrical current is unable to flow through the capacitor itself and around
the circuit due to the insulating properties of the dielectric used to separate the plates.
The flow of electrons onto the plates is known as the capacitors Charging
Current which continues to flow until the voltage across both plates (and hence the
capacitor) is equal to the applied voltage Vc. At this point the capacitor is said to be
“fully charged” with electrons.
The strength or rate of this charging current is at its maximum value when the plates
are fully discharged (initial condition) and slowly reduces in value to zero as the
plates charge up to a potential difference across the capacitors plates equal to the
source voltage.
The amount of potential difference present across the capacitor depends upon how
much charge was deposited onto the plates by the work being done by the source
voltage and also by how much capacitance the capacitor has and this is illustrated
below.
The parallel plate capacitor is the simplest form of capacitor. It can be constructed
using two metal or metallised foil plates at a distance parallel to each other, with its
capacitance value in Farads, being fixed by the surface area of the conductive plates
and the distance of separation between them. Altering any two of these values alters
the the value of its capacitance and this forms the basis of operation of the variable
capacitors.
Also, because capacitors store the energy of the electrons in the form of an electrical
charge on the plates the larger the plates and/or smaller their separation the greater
will be the charge that the capacitor holds for any given voltage across its plates. In
other words, larger plates, smaller distance, more capacitance.
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 familiar
formula for the quantity of charge on the plates as: Q = C x V
Although we have said that the charge is stored on the plates of a capacitor, it is more
exact to say that the energy within the charge is stored in an “electrostatic field”
between the two plates. When an electric current flows into the capacitor, it charges
up, so the electrostatic field becomes much stronger as it stores more energy between
the plates.
Likewise, as the current flowing out of the capacitor, discharging it, the potential
difference between the two plates decreases and the electrostatic field decreases as the
energy moves out of the plates.
The property of a capacitor to store charge on its plates in the form of an electrostatic
field is called the Capacitance of the capacitor. Not only that, but capacitance is also
the property of a capacitor which resists the change of voltage across it.
The Capacitance of a Capacitor
Capacitance is the electrical property of a capacitor and is the measure of a capacitors
ability to store an electrical charge onto its two plates with the unit of capacitance
being the Farad (abbreviated to F) named after the British physicist Michael Faraday.
Capacitance is defined as being that 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. Note that capacitance, C is always positive in value and has no negative units.
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.

Standard Units of Capacitance

 Microfarad (μF) 1μF = 1/1,000,000 = 0.000001 = 10 F -6

 Nanofarad (nF) 1nF = 1/1,000,000,000 = 0.000000001 = 10 F -9

 Picofarad (pF) 1pF = 1/1,000,000,000,000 = 0.000000000001 = 10 F -12

Then using the information above we can construct a simple table to help us convert
between pico-Farad (pF), to nano-Farad (nF), to micro-Farad (μF) and to Farads (F) as
shown.

Pico-Farad (pF) Nano-Farad (nF) Micro-Farad (μF) Farads (F)

1,000 1.0 0.001

10,000 10.0 0.01

1,000,000 1,000 1.0

10,000 10.0
 100,000 100

1,000,000 1,000 0.001

10,000 0.01

100,000 0.1

1,000,000 1.0

Introduction to Capacitors – Capacitance

The capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor is proportional to the area, A in metres2 of
the smallest of the two plates and inversely proportional to the distance or
separation, d (i.e. the dielectric thickness) given in metres between these two
conductive plates.
The generalised equation for the capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor is given
as: C = ε(A/d) where ε represents the absolute permittivity of the dielectric material
being used. The dielectric constant, εo also known as the “permittivity of free space”
has the value of the constant 8.854 x 10-12 Farads per metre.
To make the maths a little easier, this dielectric constant of free space, εo, which can
be written as: 1/(4π x 9×109), may also have the units of picofarads (pF) per metre as
the constant giving: 8.85 for the value of free space. Note though that the resulting
capacitance value will be in picofarads and not in farads.
Generally, the conductive plates of a capacitor are separated by some kind of
insulating material or gel rather than a perfect vacuum. When calculating the
capacitance of a capacitor, we can consider the permittivity of air, and especially of
dry air, as being the same value as a vacuum as they are very close.
Introduction to Capacitors Example No1
A capacitor is constructed from two conductive metal plates 30cm x 50cm which are
spaced 6mm apart from each other, and uses dry air as its only dielectric material.
Calculate the capacitance of the capacitor.

Then the value of the capacitor consisting of two plates separated by air is calculated
as 0.221nF, or 221pF.

Introduction to Capacitors – The Dielectric

As well as the overall size of the conductive plates and their distance or spacing apart
from each other, another factor which affects the overall capacitance of the device is
the type of dielectric material being used. In other words the “Permittivity” (ε) of the
dielectric.
The conductive plates of a capacitor are generally made of a metal foil or a metal film
allowing for the flow of electrons and charge, but the dielectric material used is
always an insulator. The various insulating materials used as the dielectric in a
capacitor differ in their ability to block or pass an electrical charge.
This dielectric material can be made from a number of insulating materials or
combinations of these materials with the most common types used being: air, paper,
polyester, polypropylene, Mylar, ceramic, glass, oil, or a variety of other materials.
The factor by which the dielectric material, or insulator, increases the capacitance of
the capacitor compared to air is known as the Dielectric Constant, k and a dielectric
material with a high dielectric constant is a better insulator than a dielectric material
with a lower dielectric constant. Dielectric constant is a dimensionless quantity since
it is relative to free space.
The actual permittivity or “complex permittivity” of the dielectric material between
the plates is then the product of the permittivity of free space (εo) and the relative
permittivity (εr) of the material being used as the dielectric and is given as:

Complex Permittivity

In other words, if we take the permittivity of free space, εo as our base level and make
it equal to one, when the vacuum of free space is replaced by some other type of
insulating material, their permittivity of its dielectric is referenced to the base
dielectric of free space giving a multiplication factor known as “relative
permittivity”, εr. So the value of the complex permittivity, ε will always be equal to
the relative permittivity times one.
Typical units of dielectric permittivity, ε or dielectric constant for common materials
are: Pure Vacuum = 1.0000, Air = 1.0006, Paper = 2.5 to 3.5, Glass = 3 to 10, Mica =
5 to 7, Wood = 3 to 8 and Metal Oxide Powders = 6 to 20 etc. This then gives us a
final equation for the capacitance of a capacitor as:

One method used to increase the overall capacitance of a capacitor while keeping its
size small is to “interleave” more plates together within a single capacitor body.
Instead of just one set of parallel plates, a capacitor can have many individual plates
connected together thereby increasing the surface area, A of the plates.
For a standard parallel plate capacitor as shown above, the capacitor has two plates,
labelled A and B. Therefore as the number of capacitor plates is two, we can say
that n = 2, where “n” represents the number of plates.
Then our equation above for a single parallel plate capacitor should really be:

However, the capacitor may have two parallel plates but only one side of each plate is
in contact with the dielectric in the middle as the other side of each plate forms the
outside of the capacitor. If we take the two halves of the plates and join them together
we effectively only have “one” whole plate in contact with the dielectric.
As for a single parallel plate capacitor, n – 1 = 2 – 1 which equals 1 as C = (εo*εr x 1 x
A)/d is exactly the same as saying: C = (εo*εr*A)/d which is the standard equation
above.
Now suppose we have a capacitor made up of 9 interleaved plates, then n = 9 as
shown.

Multi-plate Capacitor

Now we have five plates connected to one lead (A) and four plates to the other lead
(B). Then BOTH sides of the four plates connected to lead B are in contact with the
dielectric, whereas only one side of each of the outer plates connected to A is in
contact with the dielectric. Then as above, the useful surface area of each set of plates
is only eight and its capacitance is therefore given as:
Modern capacitors can be classified according to the characteristics and properties of
their insulating dielectric:
 Low Loss, High Stability such as Mica, Low-K Ceramic, Polystyrene.
 Medium Loss, Medium Stability such as Paper, Plastic Film, High-K
Ceramic.
 Polarised Capacitors such as Electrolytics, Tantalums.

Introduction to Capacitors – Voltage Rating

All capacitors have a maximum voltage rating and when selecting a capacitor
consideration must be given to the amount of voltage to be applied across the
capacitor. The maximum amount of voltage that can be applied to the capacitor
without damage to its dielectric material is generally given in the data sheets as: WV,
(working voltage) or as WV DC, (DC working voltage).
If the voltage applied across the capacitor becomes too great, the dielectric will break
down (known as electrical breakdown) and arcing will occur between the capacitor
plates resulting in a short-circuit. The working voltage of the capacitor depends on the
type of dielectric material being used and its thickness.
The DC working voltage of a capacitor is just that, the maximum DC voltage and
NOT the maximum AC voltage as a capacitor with a DC voltage rating of 100 volts
DC cannot be safely subjected to an alternating voltage of 100 volts. Since an
alternating voltage that has an RMS value of 100 volts will have a peak value of over
141 volts! (√2 x 100).
Then a capacitor which is required to operate at 100 volts AC should have a working
voltage of at least 200 volts. In practice, a capacitor should be selected so that its
working voltage either DC or AC should be at least 50 percent greater than the highest
effective voltage to be applied to it.
Another factor which affects the operation of a capacitor is Dielectric Leakage.
Dielectric leakage occurs in a capacitor as the result of an unwanted leakage current
which flows through the dielectric material.
Generally, it is assumed that the resistance of the dielectric is extremely high and a
good insulator blocking the flow of DC current through the capacitor (as in a perfect
capacitor) from one plate to the other.
However, if the dielectric material becomes damaged due excessive voltage or over
temperature, the leakage current through the dielectric will become extremely high
resulting in a rapid loss of charge on the plates and an overheating of the capacitor
eventually resulting in premature failure of the capacitor. Then never use a capacitor
in a circuit with higher voltages than the capacitor is rated for otherwise it may
become hot and explode.

Introduction to Capacitors Summary

We have seen in this tutorial that the job of a capacitor is to store electrical charge
onto its plates. The amount of electrical charge that a capacitor can store on its plates
is known as its Capacitance value and depends upon three main factors.
 Surface Area – the surface area, A of the two conductive plates which make up
the capacitor, the larger the area the greater the capacitance.
 Distance – the distance, d between the two plates, the smaller the distance the
greater the capacitance.
 Dielectric Material – the type of material which separates the two plates called
the “dielectric”, the higher the permittivity of the dielectric the greater the
capacitance.
We have also seen that a capacitor consists of metal plates that do not touch each
other but are separated by a material called a dielectric. The dielectric of a capacitor
can be air, or even a vacuum but is generally a non-conducting insulating material,
such as waxed paper, glass, mica different types of plastics etc. The dielectric
provides the following advantages:
 The dielectric constant is the property of the dielectric material and varies from
one material to another increasing the capacitance by a factor of k.
 The dielectric provides mechanical support between the two plates allowing the
plates to be closer together without touching.
 Permittivity of the dielectric increases the capacitance.
 The dielectric increases the maximum operating voltage compared to air.
Capacitors can be used in many different applications and circuits such as blocking
DC current while passing audio signals, pulses, or alternating current, or other time
varying wave forms. This ability to block DC currents enables capacitors to be used to
smooth the output voltages of power supplies, to remove unwanted spikes from
signals that would otherwise tend to cause damage or false triggering of
semiconductors or digital components.
Capacitors can also be used to adjust the frequency response of an audio circuit, or to
couple together separate amplifier stages that must be protected from the transmission
of DC current.
When used on DC supplies a capacitor has infinite impedance (open-circuit), at very
high frequencies a capacitor has zero impedance (short-circuit). All capacitors have a
maximum working DC voltage rating, (WVDC) so it is advisable to select a capacitor
with a voltage rating at least 50% more than the supply voltage.
We have seen in this introduction to capacitors tutorial that there are a large variety of
capacitor styles and types, each one having its own particular advantage, disadvantage
and characteristics. To include all types would make this tutorial section very large so
in the next tutorial about capacitors, I shall limit them to the most commonly used
types.