Capacitor: Jump To
Capacitor: Jump To
Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the electronic component. For the physical phenomenon, see capacitance. For an overview of various kinds of capacitors, see types of capacitor.
Capacitor
Modern capacitors, by a cm rule Type Invented Passive Ewald Georg von Kleist (October 1745) Electronic symbol
A capacitor (formerly known as condenser) is a device for storing electric charge. The forms of practical capacitors vary widely, but all contain at least two conductors separated by a non-conductor. Capacitors used as parts of electrical systems, for example, consist of metal foils separated by a layer of insulating film. A capacitor is a passive electronic component consisting of a pair of conductors separated by a dielectric (insulator). When there is a potential difference (voltage) across the conductors, a static electric field develops across the dielectric, causing positive charge to collect on one plate and negative charge on the other plate. Energy is stored in the electrostatic field. An ideal capacitor is characterized by a single constant value, capacitance, measured in farads. This is the ratio of the electric charge on each conductor to the potential difference between them. Capacitors are widely used in electronic circuits for blocking direct current while allowing alternating current to pass, in filter networks, for smoothing the output of power supplies, in the resonant circuits that tune radios to particular frequencies and for many other purposes. The capacitance is greatest when there is a narrow separation between large areas of conductor, hence capacitor conductors are often called "plates," referring to an early means of construction. In practice the dielectric between the plates passes a small amount of leakage current and also has an electric field strength limit, resulting in a breakdown voltage, while the conductors and leads introduce an undesired inductance and resistance.
Contents
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1 History 2 Theory of operation o 2.1 Energy storage o 2.2 Current-voltage relation o 2.3 DC circuits o 2.4 AC circuits o 2.5 Parallel plate model o 2.6 Networks 3 Non-ideal behaviour o 3.1 Breakdown voltage o 3.2 Equivalent circuit o 3.3 Ripple current o 3.4 Capacitance instability 4 Capacitor types o 4.1 Dielectric materials o 4.2 Structure 5 Capacitor markings
o 5.1 Example 6 Applications o 6.1 Energy storage o 6.2 Pulsed power and weapons o 6.3 Power conditioning 6.3.1 Power factor correction o 6.4 Supression and coupling 6.4.1 Signal coupling 6.4.2 Decoupling 6.4.3 Noise filters and snubbers o 6.5 Motor starters o 6.6 Signal processing 6.6.1 Tuned circuits o 6.7 Sensing 7 Hazards and safety 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References
11 External links
[edit] History
Battery of four Leyden jars in Museum Boerhaave, Leiden, the Netherlands. In October 1745, Ewald Georg von Kleist of Pomerania in Germany found that charge could be stored by connecting a high voltage electrostatic generator by a wire to a volume of water in a hand-held glass jar.[1] Von Kleist's hand and the water acted as conductors and the jar as a dielectric (although details of the mechanism were incorrectly identified
at the time). Von Kleist found, after removing the generator, that touching the wire resulted in a painful spark. In a letter describing the experiment, he said "I would not take a second shock for the kingdom of France."[2] The following year, the Dutch physicist Pieter van Musschenbroek invented a similar capacitor, which was named the Leyden jar, after the University of Leiden where he worked.[3] Daniel Gralath was the first to combine several jars in parallel into a "battery" to increase the charge storage capacity. Benjamin Franklin investigated the Leyden jar and "proved" that the charge was stored on the glass, not in the water as others had assumed. He also adopted the term "battery",[4][5] (denoting the increasing of power with a row of similar units as in a battery of cannon), subsequently applied to clusters of electrochemical cells. [6] Leyden jars were later made by coating the inside and outside of jars with metal foil, leaving a space at the mouth to prevent arcing between the foils.[citation needed] The earliest unit of capacitance was the 'jar', equivalent to about 1 nanofarad.[citation needed] Leyden jars or more powerful devices employing flat glass plates alternating with foil conductors were used exclusively up until about 1900, when the invention of wireless (radio) created a demand for standard capacitors, and the steady move to higher frequencies required capacitors with lower inductance. A more compact construction began to be used of a flexible dielectric sheet such as oiled paper sandwiched between sheets of metal foil, rolled or folded into a small package. Early capacitors were also known as condensers, a term that is still occasionally used today. The term was first used for this purpose by Alessandro Volta in 1782, with reference to the device's ability to store a higher density of electric charge than a normal isolated conductor.[7]
Charge separation in a parallel-plate capacitor causes an internal electric field. A dielectric (orange) reduces the field and increases the capacitance.
A simple demonstration of a parallel-plate capacitor A capacitor consists of two conductors separated by a non-conductive region.[8] The nonconductive region is called the dielectric or sometimes the dielectric medium. In simpler terms, the dielectric is just an electrical insulator. Examples of dielectric mediums are glass, air, paper, vacuum, and even a semiconductor depletion region chemically identical to the conductors. A capacitor is assumed to be self-contained and isolated, with no net electric charge and no influence from any external electric field. The conductors thus hold equal and opposite charges on their facing surfaces,[9] and the dielectric develops an electric field. In SI units, a capacitance of one farad means that one coulomb of charge on each conductor causes a voltage of one volt across the device.[10] The capacitor is a reasonably general model for electric fields within electric circuits. An ideal capacitor is wholly characterized by a constant capacitance C, defined as the ratio of charge Q on each conductor to the voltage V between them:[8]
Sometimes charge build-up affects the capacitor mechanically, causing its capacitance to vary. In this case, capacitance is defined in terms of incremental changes:
. Taking the derivative of this, and multiplying by C, yields the derivative form,[13]
. The dual of the capacitor is the inductor, which stores energy in the magnetic field rather than the electric field. Its current-voltage relation is obtained by exchanging current and voltage in the capacitor equations and replacing C with the inductance L.
[edit] DC circuits
See also: RC circuit
A simple resistor-capacitor circuit demonstrates charging of a capacitor. A series circuit containing only a resistor, a capacitor, a switch and a constant DC source of voltage V0 is known as a charging circuit.[14] If the capacitor is initially uncharged while the switch is open, and the switch is closed at t = 0, it follows from Kirchhoff's voltage law that
At t = 0, the voltage across the capacitor is zero and the voltage across the resistor is V0. The initial current is then i (0) =V0 /R. With this assumption, the differential equation yields
where 0 = RC is the time constant of the system. As the capacitor reaches equilibrium with the source voltage, the voltage across the resistor and the current through the entire circuit decay exponentially. The case of discharging a charged capacitor likewise demonstrates exponential decay, but with the initial capacitor voltage replacing V0 and the final voltage being zero.
[edit] AC circuits
See also: reactance (electronics) and electrical impedance#Deriving the device specific impedances Impedance, the vector sum of reactance and resistance, describes the phase difference and the ratio of amplitudes between sinusoidally varying voltage and sinusoidally varying current at a given frequency. Fourier analysis allows any signal to be constructed from a spectrum of frequencies, whence the circuit's reaction to the various frequencies may be found. The reactance and impedance of a capacitor are respectively
where j is the imaginary unit and is the angular velocity of the sinusoidal signal. The - j phase indicates that the AC voltage V = Z I lags the AC current by 90: the positive
current phase corresponds to increasing voltage as the capacitor charges; zero current corresponds to instantaneous constant voltage, etc. Note that impedance decreases with increasing capacitance and increasing frequency. This implies that a higher-frequency signal or a larger capacitor results in a lower voltage amplitude per current amplitudean AC "short circuit" or AC coupling. Conversely, for very low frequencies, the reactance will be high, so that a capacitor is nearly an open circuit in AC analysisthose frequencies have been "filtered out". Capacitors are different from resistors and inductors in that the impedance is inversely proportional to the defining characteristic, i.e. capacitance.
Dielectric is placed between two conducting plates, each of area A and with a separation of d. The simplest capacitor consists of two parallel conductive plates separated by a dielectric with permittivity (such as air). The model may also be used to make qualitative predictions for other device geometries. The plates are considered to extend uniformly over an area A and a charge density = Q/A exists on their surface. Assuming that the width of the plates is much greater than their separation d, the electric field near the centre of the device will be uniform with the magnitude E = /. The voltage is defined as the line integral of the electric field between the plates
Solving this for C = Q/V reveals that capacitance increases with area and decreases with separation
The capacitance is therefore greatest in devices made from materials with a high permittivity, large plate area, and small distance between plates. However solving for maximum energy storage using Vd as the dielectric strength per distance
we see that the maximum energy is a function of dielectric volume, permittivity, and dielectric strength per distance. So increasing the plate area while decreasing the separation between the plates while maintaining the same volume has no change on the amount of energy the capacitor can store. Care must be taken when increasing the plate separation so that the above assumption of the distance between plates being much smaller than the area of the plates is still valid for these equations to be accurate.
[edit] Networks
See also: Series and parallel circuits For capacitors in parallel Capacitors in a parallel configuration each have the same applied voltage. Their capacitances add up. Charge is apportioned among them by size. Using the schematic diagram to visualize parallel plates, it is apparent that each capacitor contributes to the total surface area. For capacitors in series
Several capacitors in series. Connected in series, the schematic diagram reveals that the separation distance, not the plate area, adds up. The capacitors each store instantaneous charge buildup equal to that of every other capacitor in the series. The total voltage difference from end to end is apportioned to each capacitor according to the inverse of its capacitance. The entire series acts as a capacitor smaller than any of its components.
Capacitors are combined in series to achieve a higher working voltage, for example for smoothing a high voltage power supply. The voltage ratings, which are based on plate separation, add up. In such an application, several series connections may in turn be connected in parallel, forming a matrix. The goal is to maximize the energy storage utility of each capacitor without overloading it. This paragraph needs attention from an expert on the subject. See the talk page for details. WikiProject Electronics or the Electronics Portal may be able to help recruit an expert. (May 2011) Series connection is also used to adapt electrolytic capacitors for AC use.
Vbd = Edsd
The maximum energy that can be stored safely in a capacitor is limited by the breakdown voltage. Due to the scaling of capacitance and breakdown voltage with dielectric thickness, all capacitors made with a particular dielectric have approximately equal maximum energy density, to the extent that the dielectric dominates their volume.[16] For air dielectric capacitors the breakdown field strength is of the order 2 to 5 MV/m; for mica the breakdown is 100 to 300 MV/m, for oil 15 to 25 MV/m, and can be much less when other materials are used for the dielectric.[17] The dielectric is used in very thin layers and so absolute breakdown voltage of capacitors is limited. Typical ratings for capacitors used for general electronics applications range from a few volts to 100V or so. As the voltage increases, the dielectric must be thicker, making high-voltage capacitors
larger than those rated for lower voltages. The breakdown voltage is critically affected by factors such as the geometry of the capacitor conductive parts; sharp edges or points increase the electric field strength at that point and can lead to a local breakdown. Once this starts to happen, the breakdown will quickly "track" through the dielectric until it reaches the opposite plate and causes a short circuit.[18] The usual breakdown route is that the field strength becomes large enough to pull electrons in the dielectric from their atoms thus causing conduction. Other scenarios are possible, such as impurities in the dielectric, and, if the dielectric is of a crystalline nature, imperfections in the crystal structure can result in an avalanche breakdown as seen in semi-conductor devices. Breakdown voltage is also affected by pressure, humidity and temperature.[19]
Two different circuit models of a real capacitor An ideal capacitor only stores and releases electrical energy, without dissipating any. In reality, all capacitors have imperfections within the capacitor's material that create resistance. This is specified as the equivalent series resistance or ESR of a component. This adds a real component to the impedance:
As frequency approaches infinity, the capacitive impedance (or reactance) approaches zero and the ESR becomes significant. As the reactance becomes negligible, power dissipation approaches PRMS = VRMS /RESR. Similarly to ESR, the capacitor's leads add equivalent series inductance or ESL to the component. This is usually significant only at relatively high frequencies. As inductive reactance is positive and increases with frequency, above a certain frequency capacitance
will be canceled by inductance. High-frequency engineering involves accounting for the inductance of all connections and components. If the conductors are separated by a material with a small conductivity rather than a perfect dielectric, then a small leakage current flows directly between them. The capacitor therefore has a finite parallel resistance,[10] and slowly discharges over time (time may vary greatly depending on the capacitor material and quality).
physical force, moving them as a speaker. This can generate audible sound, but drains energy and stresses the dielectric and the electrolyte, if any.
Capacitor materials. From left: multilayer ceramic, ceramic disc, multilayer polyester film, tubular ceramic, polystyrene, metalized polyester film, aluminum electrolytic. Major scale divisions are in centimetres. Most types of capacitor include a dielectric spacer, which increases their capacitance. These dielectrics are most often insulators. However, low capacitance devices are available with a vacuum between their plates, which allows extremely high voltage operation and low losses. Variable capacitors with their plates open to the atmosphere were commonly used in radio tuning circuits. Later designs use polymer foil dielectric between the moving and stationary plates, with no significant air space between them. In order to maximise the charge that a capacitor can hold, the dielectric material needs to have as high a permittivity as possible, while also having as high a breakdown voltage as possible. Several solid dielectrics are available, including paper, plastic, glass, mica and ceramic materials. Paper was used extensively in older devices and offers relatively high voltage performance. However, it is susceptible to water absorption, and has been largely replaced by plastic film capacitors. Plastics offer better stability and aging performance,
which makes them useful in timer circuits, although they may be limited to low operating temperatures and frequencies. Ceramic capacitors are generally small, cheap and useful for high frequency applications, although their capacitance varies strongly with voltage and they age poorly. They are broadly categorized as class 1 dielectrics, which have predictable variation of capacitance with temperature or class 2 dielectrics, which can operate at higher voltage. Glass and mica capacitors are extremely reliable, stable and tolerant to high temperatures and voltages, but are too expensive for most mainstream applications. Electrolytic capacitors and supercapacitors are used to store small and larger amounts of energy, respectively, ceramic capacitors are often used in resonators, and parasitic capacitance occurs in circuits wherever the simple conductor-insulatorconductor structure is formed unintentionally by the configuration of the circuit layout. Electrolytic capacitors use an aluminum or tantalum plate with an oxide dielectric layer. The second electrode is a liquid electrolyte, connected to the circuit by another foil plate. Electrolytic capacitors offer very high capacitance but suffer from poor tolerances, high instability, gradual loss of capacitance especially when subjected to heat, and high leakage current. Poor quality capacitors may leak electrolyte, which is harmful to printed circuit boards. The conductivity of the electrolyte drops at low temperatures, which increases equivalent series resistance. While widely used for power-supply conditioning, poor high-frequency characteristics make them unsuitable for many applications. Electrolytic capacitors will self-degrade if unused for a period (around a year), and when full power is applied may short circuit, permanently damaging the capacitor and usually blowing a fuse or causing arcing in rectifier tubes. They can be restored before use (and damage) by gradually applying the operating voltage, often done on antique vacuum tube equipment over a period of 30 minutes by using a variable transformer to supply AC power. Unfortunately, the use of this technique may be less satisfactory for some solid state equipment, which may be damaged by operation below its normal power range, requiring that the power supply first be isolated from the consuming circuits. Such remedies may not be applicable to modern high-frequency power supplies as these produce full output voltage even with reduced input. Tantalum capacitors offer better frequency and temperature characteristics than aluminum, but higher dielectric absorption and leakage.[21] OS-CON (or OC-CON) capacitors are a polymerized organic semiconductor solid-electrolyte type that offer longer life at higher cost than standard electrolytic capacitors. Several other types of capacitor are available for specialist applications. Supercapacitors store large amounts of energy. Supercapacitors made from carbon aerogel, carbon nanotubes, or highly porous electrode materials, offer extremely high capacitance (up to 5 kF as of 2010) and can be used in some applications instead of rechargeable batteries. Alternating current capacitors are specifically designed to work on line (mains) voltage AC power circuits. They are commonly used in electric motor circuits and are often designed to handle large currents, so they tend to be physically large. They are usually ruggedly packaged, often in metal cases that can be easily grounded/earthed. They also are designed with direct current breakdown voltages of at least five times the maximum AC voltage.
[edit] Structure
Capacitor packages: SMD ceramic at top left; SMD tantalum at bottom left; through-hole tantalum at top right; through-hole electrolytic at bottom right. Major scale divisions are cm. The arrangement of plates and dielectric has many variations depending on the desired ratings of the capacitor. For small values of capacitance (microfarads and less), ceramic disks use metallic coatings, with wire leads bonded to the coating. Larger values can be made by multiple stacks of plates and disks. Larger value capacitors usually use a metal foil or metal film layer deposited on the surface of a dielectric film to make the plates, and a dielectric film of impregnated paper or plastic these are rolled up to save space. To reduce the series resistance and inductance for long plates, the plates and dielectric are staggered so that connection is made at the common edge of the rolled-up plates, not at the ends of the foil or metalized film strips that comprise the plates. The assembly is encased to prevent moisture entering the dielectric early radio equipment used a cardboard tube sealed with wax. Modern paper or film dielectric capacitors are dipped in a hard thermoplastic. Large capacitors for high-voltage use may have the roll form compressed to fit into a rectangular metal case, with bolted terminals and bushings for connections. The dielectric in larger capacitors is often impregnated with a liquid to improve its properties.
Several axial-lead electrolytic capacitors. Capacitors may have their connecting leads arranged in many configurations, for example axially or radially. "Axial" means that the leads are on a common axis, typically the axis of the capacitor's cylindrical body the leads extend from opposite ends. Radial leads
might more accurately be referred to as tandem; they are rarely actually aligned along radii of the body's circle, so the term is inexact, although universal. The leads (until bent) are usually in planes parallel to that of the flat body of the capacitor, and extend in the same direction; they are often parallel as manufactured. Small, cheap discoidal ceramic capacitors have existed since the 1930s, and remain in widespread use. Since the 1980s, surface mount packages for capacitors have been widely used. These packages are extremely small and lack connecting leads, allowing them to be soldered directly onto the surface of printed circuit boards. Surface mount components avoid undesirable high-frequency effects due to the leads and simplify automated assembly, although manual handling is made difficult due to their small size. Mechanically controlled variable capacitors allow the plate spacing to be adjusted, for example by rotating or sliding a set of movable plates into alignment with a set of stationary plates. Low cost variable capacitors squeeze together alternating layers of aluminum and plastic with a screw. Electrical control of capacitance is achievable with varactors (or varicaps), which are reverse-biased semiconductor diodes whose depletion region width varies with applied voltage. They are used in phase-locked loops, amongst other applications.
[edit] Example
A capacitor with the text 473K 330V on its body has a capacitance of 47 x 103 pF = 47 nF (10%) with a working voltage of 330 V.
[edit] Applications
Main article: Applications of capacitors Capacitors have many uses in electronic and electrical systems. They are so common that it is a rare electrical product that does not include at least one for some purpose.
A capacitor can store electric energy when disconnected from its charging circuit, so it can be used like a temporary battery. Capacitors are commonly used in electronic devices to maintain power supply while batteries are being changed. (This prevents loss of information in volatile memory.) Conventional capacitors provide less than 360 joules per kilogram of energy density, while capacitors using developing technologies could provide more than 2.52 kilojoules per kilogram.[22] In car audio systems, large capacitors store energy for the amplifier to use on demand. Also for a flash tube a capacitor is used to hold the high voltage.
A 10,000 microfarad capacitor in a TRM-800 amplifier Reservoir capacitors are used in power supplies where they smooth the output of a full or half wave rectifier. They can also be used in charge pump circuits as the energy storage element in the generation of higher voltages than the input voltage. Capacitors are connected in parallel with the power circuits of most electronic devices and larger systems (such as factories) to shunt away and conceal current fluctuations from the primary power source to provide a "clean" power supply for signal or control
circuits. Audio equipment, for example, uses several capacitors in this way, to shunt away power line hum before it gets into the signal circuitry. The capacitors act as a local reserve for the DC power source, and bypass AC currents from the power supply. This is used in car audio applications, when a stiffening capacitor compensates for the inductance and resistance of the leads to the lead-acid car battery. [edit] Power factor correction In electric power distribution, capacitors are used for power factor correction. Such capacitors often come as three capacitors connected as a three phase load. Usually, the values of these capacitors are given not in farads but rather as a reactive power in voltamperes reactive (VAr). The purpose is to counteract inductive loading from devices like electric motors and transmission lines to make the load appear to be mostly resistive. Individual motor or lamp loads may have capacitors for power factor correction, or larger sets of capacitors (usually with automatic switching devices) may be installed at a load center within a building or in a large utility substation.
Polyester film capacitors are frequently used as coupling capacitors. Because capacitors pass AC but block DC signals (when charged up to the applied dc voltage), they are often used to separate the AC and DC components of a signal. This method is known as AC coupling or "capacitive coupling". Here, a large value of capacitance, whose value need not be accurately controlled, but whose reactance is small at the signal frequency, is employed. [edit] Decoupling Main article: decoupling capacitor A decoupling capacitor is a capacitor used to protect one part of a circuit from the effect of another, for instance to suppress noise or transients. Noise caused by other circuit elements is shunted through the capacitor, reducing the effect they have on the rest of the circuit. It is most commonly used between the power supply and ground. An alternative
name is bypass capacitor as it is used to bypass the power supply or other high impedance component of a circuit. [edit] Noise filters and snubbers When an inductive circuit is opened, the current through the inductance collapses quickly, creating a large voltage across the open circuit of the switch or relay. If the inductance is large enough, the energy will generate a spark, causing the contact points to oxidize, deteriorate, or sometimes weld together, or destroying a solid-state switch. A snubber capacitor across the newly opened circuit creates a path for this impulse to bypass the contact points, thereby preserving their life; these were commonly found in contact breaker ignition systems, for instance. Similarly, in smaller scale circuits, the spark may not be enough to damage the switch but will still radiate undesirable radio frequency interference (RFI), which a filter capacitor absorbs. Snubber capacitors are usually employed with a low-value resistor in series, to dissipate energy and minimize RFI. Such resistor-capacitor combinations are available in a single package. Capacitors are also used in parallel to interrupt units of a high-voltage circuit breaker in order to equally distribute the voltage between these units. In this case they are called grading capacitors. In schematic diagrams, a capacitor used primarily for DC charge storage is often drawn vertically in circuit diagrams with the lower, more negative, plate drawn as an arc. The straight plate indicates the positive terminal of the device, if it is polarized (see electrolytic capacitor).
Motor-starting capacitors are typically non-polarized electrolytic types, while running capacitors are conventional paper or plastic film dielectric types.
[edit] Sensing
Main article: capacitive sensing Most capacitors are designed to maintain a fixed physical structure. However, various factors can change the structure of the capacitor, and the resulting change in capacitance can be used to sense those factors. Changing the dielectric: The effects of varying the physical and/or electrical characteristics of the dielectric can be used for sensing purposes. Capacitors with an exposed and porous dielectric can be used to measure humidity in air. Capacitors are used to accurately measure the fuel level in airplanes; as the fuel covers more of a pair of plates, the circuit capacitance increases. Changing the distance between the plates:
Capacitors with a flexible plate can be used to measure strain or pressure. Industrial pressure transmitters used for process control use pressure-sensing diaphragms, which form a capacitor plate of an oscillator circuit. Capacitors are used as the sensor in condenser microphones, where one plate is moved by air pressure, relative to the fixed position of the other plate. Some accelerometers use MEMS capacitors etched on a chip to measure the magnitude and direction of the acceleration vector. They are used to detect changes in acceleration, e.g. as tilt sensors or to detect free fall, as sensors triggering airbag deployment, and in many other applications. Some fingerprint sensors use capacitors. Additionally, a user can adjust the pitch of a theremin musical instrument by moving his hand since this changes the effective capacitance between the user's hand and the antenna. Changing the effective area of the plates: Capacitive touch switches are now used on many consumer electronic products.
High-voltage capacitors can benefit from a pre-charge to limit in-rush currents at powerup of high voltage direct current (HVDC) circuits. This will extend the life of the component and may mitigate high-voltage hazards.