Capacitor ESR, Dissipation Factor, Loss Tangent and Q
Capacitor ESR, Dissipation Factor, Loss Tangent and Q
Capacitor ESR, Dissipation Factor, Loss Tangent and Q
ESR - Equivalent Series Resistance, DF - Dissipation Factor, and Q or Quality factor are three important factors in the specification of any capacitor. They have a marked impact on the performance of the capacitor and can govern the types of application for which the capacitor may be used. As the three parameters are interlinked, ESR, DF and Q will all be addressed on this page. ESR, DF and Q are all aspects of the performance of a capacitor that will affect its performance in areas such as RF operation. However ESR, and DF are also particularly important for capacitors operating in power supplies where a high ESR and dissipation factor, DF will result in large amount of power being dissipated in the capacitor.
The Equivalent Series Resistance, ESR associated with a capacitor Capacitors with high values of ESR will naturally need to dissipate power as heat. For some circuits with only low values of current, this may not be a problem, however in many circuits such as power supply smoothing circuits where current levels are high, the power levels dissipated by the ESR may result in a significant temperature rise. This needs to be within the operational bounds for the capacitor otherwise damage may result, and this needs to be incorporated within the design of the circuit. It is found that when the temperature of a capacitor rises, then generally the ESR increases, although in a non-linear fashion. Increasing frequency also has a similar effect.
Where: = loss angle (Greek letter delta) DF = dissipation factor Q = quality factor ESR = equivalent series resistance Xc = reactance of the capacitor in ohms.
Capacitor Q
It is convenient to define the Q or Quality Factor of a capacitor. It is a fundamental expression of the energy losses in a resonant system. Essentially for a capacitor it is the ratio of the energy stored to that dissipated per cycle. It can further be deduced that the Q can be expressed as the ratio of the capacitive reactance to the ESR at the frequency of interest: Q = Xc / ESR
As Q can be measured quite easily, and it provides repeatable measurements, it is an ideal method for quantifying the loss in low loss components.