Capacitors & Inductors

Circuit Elements
• In circuits, we think about basic circuit elements that
are the basic “building blocks” of our circuits. Similar
to what we do in Chemistry with chemical elements
like oxygen or nitrogen.

• A circuit element cannot be broken down or

subdivided into other circuit elements.

• A circuit element can be defined in terms of the

behavior of the voltage and current at its terminals.
 The 5 Basic Circuit Elements

There are 5 basic circuit elements:

1. Voltage sources
2. Current sources
3. Resistors
4. Inductors
5. Capacitors
 The Capacitor
 A device that stores energy in electric field.

 Two conductive plates separated by a non

conductive material.

 Electrons accumulate on one plate forcing

electrons away from the other plate leaving a net
positive charge.

 Think of a capacitor as very small, temporary

storage battery.
The capacitors on the circuit board for an electronic device follow a labelling
convention that identifies each with a code that begins with the letter ‘C’.
 The Capacitor Physical Construction

• Capacitors are rated by:

• Amount of charge that can be
held.
• The voltage handling capabilities.
• Insulating material between
plates.

The basic unit of capacitance is the farad. A single farad in reality can hold
a very large amount of charge and in electronic circuits, and the amount of
capacitance is usually in the millionths and billionths of a farad (micro-farad,
pico-farad, nano-farad).
 The Capacitor
Ability to Hold a Charge

• Ability to hold a
charge depends on:
• Conductive plate
surface area.
• Space between
plates.
• Material between
plates.
 The Capacitor Behavior in DC
• When connected to a DC source, the
capacitor charges and holds the charge as
long as the DC voltage is applied.
• The capacitor essentially blocks DC current
from passing through.
 The Capacitor Behavior in AC
 When AC voltage is applied, during one half of the
cycle the capacitor accepts a charge in one
direction.
 During the next half of the cycle, the capacitor is
discharged then recharged in the reverse direction.
 During the next half cycle the pattern reverses.
 It acts as if AC current passes through a capacitor
 Capacitance Value
• The unit of capacitance is the farad.
• A single farad is a huge amount of
capacitance.
• Most electronic devices use capacitors that are
a very tiny fraction of a farad.

• Common capacitance ranges are:

 Micro  10-6

 Nano n 10-9

 Pico p 10-12
The capacitance C of a capacitor is defined as the ratio of the
magnitude of the charge on one of the capacitor plates to the
magnitude of the potential difference between the plates.

Note: by definition
• capacitance is always a positive quantity.
• The charge Q and p.d ΔV are positive quantities. Because the potential
difference increases linearly with the stored charge, the ratio Q / Δ V is constant
for a given capacitor.

The SI unit of capacitance is the farad (F),

 Capacitors in Circuits
• Three physical factors +
CE 
C1C2
affect capacitance Charged plates C1  C2
values. far apart
o Plate spacing -
o Plate surface area
o Dielectric material
• In series, plates are far
apart making
capacitance less
• In parallel, the surface area of
the plates add up to be greater. CE  C1  C2

• This makes the total capacitance

higher.
Combinations of Capacitors

Parallel Combination
• The individual potential differences across capacitors
connected in parallel are the same and are equal to the
potential difference applied across the combination.
• The total charge on capacitors connected in parallel is the
sum of the charges on the individual capacitors

for the equivalent capacitor

The equivalent capacitance of a parallel combination of

capacitors is the algebraic sum of the individual capacitances
and is greater than any of the individual capacitances.
 Series Combination
• The charges on capacitors connected in series are the same.

• The total p.d across any number of capacitors connected in

series is the sum of the potential differences across the
individual capacitors.
• When adding together Capacitors in Series, the reciprocal
(1/C) of the individual capacitors are all added together (just
like resistors in parallel.

• the total value for capacitors in series equals the reciprocal of

the sum of the reciprocals of the individual capacitances.

• Two or more capacitors in series will always have equal

amounts of coulomb charge across their plates.
Equivalent Capacitance
Find the equivalent capacitance between a and b for the
combination of capacitors shown below. All capacitances
are in microfarads.

• When you calculate capacitance in farads,

make sure distances are expressed in meters.
Question: A and a capacitor are connected in parallel, and this pair
of capacitors is then connected in series with a capacitor, as shown in the diagram.

What is the equivalent capacitance of the whole combination?

Parallel combination

Series combination
What is the charge on the capacitor if the whole combination is
connected across the terminals of a 6V battery? Likewise, what is the
charge on the capacitor?

The charge delivered by the 6V battery is

This is the charge on the capacitor, since one of the terminals of the battery is
connected directly to one of the plates of this capacitor.

The voltage drop across the capacitor is

 Capacitor with a Dielectric
• Dielectric, insulating material or a very poor conductor
of electric current.
• When dielectrics are placed in an electric field, practically
no current flows in them because, unlike metals, they have
no free, electrons that may drift through the material.

• Are all insulators dielectrics?

• All the dielectrics can be insulators but all the insulators

cannot be dielectrics.
• Insulators do not conduct electricity in an electric field,
since they do not have free electrons. On the other hand,
dielectrics are insulators that can be polarized.
Capacitor with a Dielectric

THE DIELECTRIC CONSTANT

The surface charges on the dielectric reduce the
electric field inside the dielectric. This reduction in the electric field
is described by the dielectric constant k, which is the ratio of the
field magnitude E0 without the dielectric to the field magnitude E
inside the dielectric:
Dielectric constant: ratio of the
capacitance of the capacitor with a
dielectric to the capacitance of a
capacitor with vacuum.

Every dielectric material has a characteristic dielectric strength,

which is the maximum value of the electric field that it can
tolerate without breakdown
 Some Properties of Dielectrics
Material Dielectric Constant Dielectric Strength (kV/mm)

Air (1 atm) 1.00054 3

Polystyrene 2.6 24
Paper 3.7 16
Transformer
oil 4.5
Pyrex 4.7 14
Ruby mica 5.4
Porcelain 6.5
Silicon 12
Germanium 16
Ethanol 25
Water (20°C) 80.4

Water (25°C) 78.5

Titania
ceramic 130
Strontium
titanate 310 8
For a vacuum, .
Capacitance with a Dielectric

q q
Cair  
V E0 d

q q
Cair     E0 / E
V E0 d

Cair 
q

q 1 q
 ( )
C
C   Cair
E0 d  Ed  Ed 

The capacitance with the dielectric present is increased by a

factor of k over the capacitance without the dielectric.
 Energy Uc stored in a capacitor

• The energy Uc stored in a capacitor is electrostatic potential

energy & is thus related to the charge Q and voltage V between
the capacitor plates.

• A charged capacitor stores energy in the electrical field between

its plates. As the capacitor is being charged, the electrical field
builds up.

• When a charged capacitor is disconnected from a battery, its

energy remains in the field in the space between its plates.
 Energy in Capacitors, Derivation
Note that power is voltage times current, as it has always been. So,
we can write, dw dv
pC   vC iC  vC CX C
.
dt dt
Multiplying each side by dt, and integrating both sides, get

wC vC
 0
dw   CX vC dvC .
0

Note, that when we integrate, we need limits. We know when voltage is zero, there
is no electric field, and therefore there can be no energy in the electric field. That
allowed us to use 0 for the lower limits.

The upper limits came since we’ll have energy stored, wC, for a given value of
voltage, vC.
 wC vC
From the integral for the energy,  0
dw   C X vC dvC .
0

Performing the integration: Note that CX is a constant, independent

of the voltage across the capacitor, so we can take it out of the
integral. We have
 vC  2
wC  0  C X   0.
 2 
Simplifying, the energy stored in the capacitor,

wC  1 2
CX vC .
2
Energy Stored Before the dielectric is inserted:

Energy Stored After the dielectric is inserted:

Question
Calculate the energy stored in the capacitor network below when
the capacitors are fully charged and when capacitances are
C1=12.0μF,C2=2.0μF, and C3=4.0μF, respectively.
Charge delivered by the 12V battery, q.
q = Ceq V = (C2 + C3) in series with C1 = (6μFx12μF/18μF)
q = 48μC

Voltage across 12μF : V1 = q/C = 48μF/12uF = 4V

Voltage dross on the C1 C3 combination = 12V - 4V = 8V
V2 = 8V
V3 = 8V

The energies stored in the capacitors are

The total energy stored in this network is

 Dielectric constant: ratio of the
Capacitor with Dielectric capacitance of the capacitor with a
dielectric to the capacitance of a capacitor
• Question 1 with vacuum.
• Consider a parallel plate capacitor with
capacitance C = 2F connected to a
battery with voltage V = 12.0 V as
shown. What is the charge stored in the
capacitor?

 
q  CV  2.00 106 F 12.0 V  2.40 105 C
 Question 2:
 Now insert a dielectric with dielectric constant  = 2.5
between the plates of the capacitor. What is the charge on the
capacitor?
C   Cair The capacitance of the capacitor is increased

q  CV  2.50  2 x10 6 F  12.0 V  6.0 10 5 C

The additional charge is provided by the battery.

29
Capacitor with Dielectric
• Question 3
• We isolate the charged capacitor with a dielectric by
disconnecting it from the battery. We remove the
dielectric, keeping the capacitor isolated.
• What happens to the charge and voltage on the
capacitor?

 The charge on the isolated capacitor cannot change because there is nowhere
for the charge to flow. Q remains constant.
 The voltage on the capacitor will be

q 6.00 10 5 C
V  6
 30.0 V V increases
C 2.00 10 F

 The voltage went up because removing the dielectric increased the electric field
and the resulting potential difference between the plates.
Additional Questions
1. The potential difference across a 5.0-pF capacitor is 0.40 V.
(a) What is the energy stored in this capacitor?
(b) The potential difference is now increased to 1.20 V. By
what factor is the stored energy increased?

2. A heart defibrillator delivers 4.00×102J of energy by

discharging a capacitor initially at 1.00×104V. What is its
capacitance?