CAPACITOR

INTRODUCTION
A capacitor is a little like a battery but works completely differently. A battery is an electronic
device that converts chemical energy into electrical energy, whereas a capacitor is an electronic
component that stores electrostatic energy in an electric field. In this article, let’s learn about
capacitors in detail.

WHAT IS CAPACITOR
A capacitor is an electrical device that can store energy in the electric field between a pair of
closely spaced conductors (called 'plates'). When current is applied to the capacitor, electric
charges of equal magnitude, but opposite polarity, build up on each plate.
Capacitors are used in electrical circuits as energy-storage devices. They can also be used to
differentiate between high-frequency and low-frequency signals and this makes them useful in
electronic filters.
Capacitors are occasionally referred to as condensers. This is now considered an antiquated
term.
A capacitor consists of two conductive electrodes, or plates, separated by a dielectric.

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CAPACITANCE
When electric charge accumulates on the plates, an electric field is created in
the region between the plates that is proportional to the amount of accumulated charge. This
electric field creates a potential difference V = E·d between the plates of this simple parallel-
plate capacitor.
The capacitor's capacitance (C) is a measure of the amount of charge (Q) stored on each plate
for a given potential difference or voltage (V) which appears between the plates:
In SI units, a capacitor has a capacitance of one farad when one coulomb of charge is stored
due to one volt applied potential difference across the plates. Since the farad is a very large
unit, values of capacitors are usually expressed in microfarads (µF), nanofarads (nF), or
picofarads (pF).
The capacitance is proportional to the surface area of the conducting plate and inversely
proportional to the distance between the plates. It is also proportional to the permittivity of the
dielectric (that is, non-conducting) substance that separates the plates.
The capacitance of a parallel-plate capacitor is given by:
where ε is the permittivity of the dielectric (see Dielectric constant), A is the area of the plates
and d is the spacing between them.
In the diagram, the rotated molecules create an opposing electric field that partially cancels the
field created by the plates, a process called dielectric polarization.
• STORED ENERGY
As opposite charges accumulate on the plates of a capacitor due to the separation
of charge, a voltage develops across the capacitor owing to the electric field of these charges.
Ever-increasing work must be done against this ever-increasing electric field as more charge
separated.
The energy (measured in joules, in SI) stored in a capacitor is equal to the amount of work
required to establish the voltage across the capacitor, and therefore the electric field. The energy
stored is given by:
where V is the voltage across the capacitor.
The maximum energy that can be (safely) stored in a particular capacitor is limited by the
maximum electric field that the dielectric can withstand before it breaks down.
Therefore, all capacitors made with the same dielectric have about the same maximum energy
density (joules of energy per cubic meter).
• HYDRAULIC MODEL
As electrical circuitry can be modeled by fluid flow, a capacitor can be modeled
as a chamber with a flexible diaphragm separating the input from the output. As can be
determined intuitively as well as mathematically, this provides the correct characteristics

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 • The pressure difference (voltage difference) across the unit is proportional to the integral
of the flow (current)
• A steady state current cannot pass through it because the pressure will build up across the
diaphragm until it equally opposes the source pressure.
• But a transient pulse or alternating current can be transmitted
• The capacitance of units connected in parallel is equivalent to the sum of their individual
capacitances

ELECTRICAL CIRCUITS
The electrons within dielectric molecules are influenced by the electric field,
causing the molecules to rotate slightly from their equilibrium positions. The air gap is shown
for clarity; in a real capacitor, the dielectric is in direct contact with the plates. Capacitors also
allow AC current to flow and block DC current.
• DC SOURCES
The dielectric between the plates is an insulator and blocks the flow of electrons. A
steady current through a capacitor deposits electrons on one plate and remove the same quantity
of electrons them from the other plate. This process is commonly called 'charging' the capacitor.
The current through the capacitor results in the separation of electric charge within the
capacitor, which develops an electric field between the plates of the capacitor, equivalently,
developing a voltage difference between the plates. This voltage V is directly proportional to
the amount of charge separated Q.
Since the current I through the capacitor is the rate at which charge Q is forced through the
capacitor (dQ/dt), this can be expressed mathematically as: where I is the current flowing in
the conventional direction, measured in amperes, dV/dt is the time derivative of voltage,
measured in volts per second, and C is the capacitance in farads.
For circuits with a constant (DC) voltage source and consisting of only resistors and capacitors,
the voltage across the capacitor cannot exceed the voltage of the source. Thus, an equilibrium
is reached where the voltage across the capacitor is constant and the current through the
capacitor is zero. For this reason, it is commonly said that capacitors block DC.
• AC SOURCES
The current through a capacitor due to an AC source reverses direction periodically.
That is, the alternating current alternately charges the plates: first in one direction and then the
other. With the exception of the instant that the current changes direction, the capacitor current
is non-zero at all times during a cycle.
For this reason, it is commonly said that capacitors "pass" AC. However, at no time do
electrons actually cross between the plates, unless the dielectric breaks down. Such a situation
would involve physical damage to the capacitor and likely to the circuit involved as well.

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Since the voltage across a capacitor is proportional to the integral of the current, as shown
above, with sine waves in AC or signal circuits this results in a phase difference of 90 degrees,
the current leading the voltage phase angle. It can be shown that the AC voltage across the
capacitor is in quadrature with the alternating current through the capacitor.
That is, the voltage and current are 'out-of-phase' by a quarter cycle. The amplitude of the
voltage depends on the amplitude of the current divided by the product of the frequency of the
current with the capacitance, C.

IMPEDANCE
The ratio of the phasor voltage across a circuit element to the phasor current through
that element is called the impedance Z. For a capacitor, the impedance is given b is the
capacitive reactance, is the angular frequency, f is the frequency), C is the capacitance in
farads, and j is the imaginary unit.
While this relation (between the frequency domain voltage and current associated with a
capacitor) is always true, the ratio of the time domain voltage and current amplitudes is equal
to XC only for sinusoidal (AC) circuits in steady state.
Hence, capacitive reactance is the negative imaginary component of impedance. The negative
sign indicates that the current leads the voltage by 90° for a sinusoidal signal, as opposed to the
inductor, where the current lags the voltage by 90°.
The impedance is analogous to the resistance of a resistor. The impedance of a capacitor is
inversely proportional to the frequency -- that is, for very high-frequency alternating currents
the reactance approaches zero -- so that a capacitor is nearly a short circuit to a very high
frequency AC source.
Conversely, for very low frequency alternating currents, the reactance increases without bound
so that a capacitor is nearly an open circuit to a very low frequency AC source. This frequency
dependent behaviour accounts for most uses of the capacitor (see "Applications", below).
Reactance is so called because the capacitor doesn't dissipate power, but merely stores energy.
In electrical circuits, as in mechanics, there are two types of load, resistive and reactive.
Resistive loads (analogous to an object sliding on a rough surface) dissipate the energy
delivered by the circuit, ultimately by electromagnetic emission (see Black body radiation),
while reactive loads (analogous to a spring or frictionless moving object) store this energy,
ultimately delivering the energy back to the circuit.
Also significant is that the impedance is inversely proportional to the capacitance, unlike
resistors and inductors for which impedances are linearly proportional to resistance and
inductance respectively.
This is why the series and shunt impedance formulae (given below) are the inverse of the
resistive case. In series, impedances sum. In parallel, conductances sum.

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• DISPLACEMENT CURRENT
The physicist James Clerk Maxwell invented the concept of displacement current,
dD/dt, to make Ampère's law consistent with conservation of charge in cases where charge is
accumulating as in a capacitor.
He interpreted this as a real motion of charges, even in vacuum, where he supposed that it
corresponded to motion of dipole charges in the aether. Although this interpretation has been
abandoned, Maxwell's correction to Ampère's law remains valid.
• NETWORKS
Series or parallel arrangements

Capacitors in a parallel configuration each have the same potential difference (voltage). Their
total capacitance (Ceq) is given by:
The reason for putting capacitors in parallel is to increase the total amount of charge stored. In
other words, increasing the capacitance also increases the amount of energy that can be stored.
Its expression is:
The current through capacitors in series stays the same, but the voltage across each capacitor
can be different. The sum of the potential differences (voltage) is equal to the total voltage.
Their total capacitance is given by:
In parallel the effective area of the combined capacitor has increased, increasing the overall
capacitance. While in series, the distance between the plates has effectively been increased,
reducing the overall capacitance.
In practice capacitors will be placed in series as a means of economically obtaining very high
voltage capacitors, for example for smoothing ripples in a high voltage power supply. Three
"600 volt maximum" capacitors in series, will increase their overall working voltage to 1800
volts.

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This is of course offset by the capacitance obtained being only one third of the value of the
capacitors used. This can be countered by connecting 3 of these series set-ups in parallel,
resulting in a 3x3 matrix of capacitors with the same overall capacitance as an individual
capacitor but operable under three times the voltage.
In this application, a large resistor would be connected across each capacitor to ensure that the
total voltage is divided equally across each capacitor and also to discharge the capacitors for
safety when the equipment is not in use.
Another application is for use of polarized capacitors in alternating current circuits; the
capacitors are connected in series, in reverse polarity, so that at any given time one of the
capacitors is not conducting...

CAPACITOR/INDUCTOR DUALITY
In mathematical terms, the ideal capacitor can be considered as an inverse of
the ideal inductor, because the voltage-current equations of the two devices can be transformed
into one another by exchanging the voltage and current terms.
Just as two or more inductors can be magnetically coupled to make a transformer, two or more
charged conductors can be electrostatically coupled to make a capacitor. The mutual
capacitance of two conductors is defined as the current that flows in one when the voltage
across the other changes by unit voltage in unit time.

APPLICATIONS
Capacitors have various uses in electronic and electrical systems.
• ENERGY STORAGE
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.)
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.

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• POWER FACTOR CORRECTION
Capacitors are used in 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 volt-amperes reactive (VAr). The purpose
is to counteract inductive loading from electric motors and fluorescent lighting in order to make
the load appear to be mostly resistive.
• SIGNAL DE-COUPLING
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 de-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.
• NOISE FILTERS, MOTOR STARTERS, 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.
In an inverse fashion, to initiate current quickly through an inductive circuit requires a greater
voltage than required to maintain it; in uses such as large motors, this can cause undesirable
startup characteristics, and a motor starting capacitor is used to increase the coil current to help
start the motor.
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).
• SIGNAL PROCESSING
The energy stored in a capacitor can be used to represent information, either in binary
form, as in DRAMs, or in analogue form, as in analog sampled filters and CCDs. Capacitors
can be used in analog circuits as components of integrators or more complex filters and in
negative feedback loop stabilization. Signal processing circuits also use capacitors to integrate
a current signal.

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• TUNED CIRCUITS
Capacitors and inductors are applied together in tuned circuits to select information in
particular frequency bands. For example, radio receivers rely on variable capacitors to tune the
station frequency. Speakers use passive analog crossovers, and analog equalizers use capacitors
to select different audio bands.
In a tuned circuit such as a radio receiver, the frequency selected is a function of the inductance
(L) and the capacitance (C) in series, and is given by:
This is the frequency at which resonance occurs in an LC circuit.

OTHER APPLICATIONS
• SENSING
Most capacitors are designed to maintain a fixed physical structure. However, various
things can change the structure of the capacitor — the resulting change in capacitance can be
used to sense those things.
Changing the dielectric: the effects of varying the physical and/or electrical characteristics of
the dielectric can also be of use. Capacitors with an exposed and porous dielectric can be used
to measure humidity in air.
Changing the distance between the plates: Capacitors are used to accurately measure the fuel
level in airplanes. Capacitors with a flexible plate can be used to measure strain or pressure.
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, eg. as tilt sensors or to detect free fall, as
sensors triggering airbag deployment, and in many other applications.

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 Also some fingerprint sensors. Additionally, a user can adjust the pitch of a theremin musical
instrument by moving his hand since this changes the effective capacitance between the users
hand and the antenna.
• PULSED POWER AND WEAPONS
Groups of large, specially constructed, low-inductance high-voltage capacitors
(capacitor banks) are used to supply huge pulses of current for many pulsed power applications.
These include electromagnetic forming, Marx generators, pulsed lasers (especially TEA
lasers), pulse forming networks, radar, fusion research, and particle accelerators.
Large capacitor banks are used as energy sources for the exploding-bridgewire detonators or
slapper detonators in nuclear weapons and other specialty weapons. Experimental work is
under way using banks of capacitors as power sources for electromagnetic armour and
electromagnetic railguns or coilguns.

HAZARDS AND SAFETY

Capacitors may retain a charge long after power is removed from a circuit; this
charge can cause shocks (sometimes fatal) or damage to connected equipment.
For example, even a seemingly innocuous device such as a disposable camera flash unit
powered by a 1.5 volt AA battery contains a capacitor which may be charged to over 300 volts.
This is easily capable of delivering an extremely painful and possibly lethal shock.
Care must be taken to ensure that any large or high-voltage capacitor is properly discharged
before servicing the containing equipment. For board-level capacitors, this is done by placing
a bleeder resistor across the terminals, whose resistance is large enough that the leakage current
will not affect the circuit, but small enough to discharge the capacitor shortly after power is
removed.
High-voltage capacitors should be stored with the terminals shorted, since temporarily
discharged capacitors can develop potentially dangerous voltages when the terminals are left
open-circuited.
Large oil-filled old capacitors must be disposed of properly as some contain polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs). It is known that waste PCBs can leak into groundwater under landfills. If
consumed by drinking contaminated water, PCBs are carcinogenic, even in very tiny amounts.
If the capacitor is physically large it is more likely to be dangerous and may require precautions
in addition to those described above. New electrical components are no longer produced with
PCBs.
("PCB" in electronics usually means printed circuit board, but the above usage is an exception.)
Capacitors containing PCB were labelled as containing "Askarel" and several other trade
names.
• HIGH-VOLTAGE
Above and beyond usual hazards associated with working with high voltage, high
energy circuits, there are a number of dangers that are specific to high voltage capacitors. High

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voltage capacitors may catastrophically fail when subjected to voltages or currents beyond their
rating, or as they reach their normal end of life.
Dielectric or metal interconnection failures may create arcing within oil-filled units that
vaporizes dielectric fluid, resulting in case bulging, rupture, or even an explosion that disperses
flammable oil, starts fires, and damages nearby equipment.
Rigid cased cylindrical glass or plastic cases are more prone to explosive rupture than
rectangular cases due to an inability to easily expand under pressure. Capacitors used in RF or
sustained high current applications can overheat, especially in the center of the capacitor rolls.
The trapped heat may cause rapid interior heating and destruction, even though the outer case
remains relatively cool. Capacitors used within high energy capacitor banks can violently
explode when a fault in one capacitor causes sudden dumping of energy stored in the rest of
the bank into the failing unit.
And, high voltage vacuum capacitors can generate soft X-rays even during normal operation.
Proper containment, fusing, and preventative maintenance can help to minimize these hazards.
High voltage capacitors can benefit from a pre-charge to limit in-rush currents at power-up of
HVDC circuits. This will extend the life of the component and may mitigate high voltage
hazards.

HOW DO YOU DETERMINE THE VALUE OF CAPACITANCE

The conducting plates have some charges Q1 and Q2 (Usually, if one plate has +q,
the other has –q charge). The electric field in the region between the plates depends on the
charge given to the conducting plates.
We also know that potential difference (V) is directly proportional to the electric field hence
we can say Q ∝ V Q = CV C=Q/V. This constant of proportionality is known as the capacitance
of the capacitor. Capacitance is the ratio of the change in the electric charge of a system to the
corresponding change in its electric potential.
The capacitance of any capacitor can be either fixed or variable, depending on its usage. From
the equation, it may seem that ‘C’ depends on charge and voltage. Actually, it depends on the
shape and size of the capacitor and also on the insulator used between the conducting plates.

CAPACITANCE OF A PARALLEL PLATE CAPACITOR

The parallel plate capacitor as shown in the figure has two identical conducting plates, each
having a surface area A and separated by a distance d. When voltage V is applied to the plates,
it stores charge Q.
The force between charges increases with charge values and decreases with the distance
between them. The bigger the area of the plates, the more charge they can store. Hence, the
value of C is greater for a large value of A.
Similarly, the closer the plates are, the greater the attraction of the opposite charges on them.
Therefore C is greater for a smaller d. The formula gives the charge density on the plates σ =
Q/A When the distance of separation (d) is small.

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The electric field between the plates is fairly uniform, and its magnitude is given by: E = σ /ε0
As the electric field between the plates is uniform, the potential difference between he plates is
given by V = Ed = σ d/ε0 = Qd/ ε0A Substituting the above value of V in the capacitance
formula, we get C= Q/V = Q/Qd/ ε0A = ε0A/d C = ε0A/d.

CAPACITANCE OF A SPHERICAL CAPACITOR

Spherical capacitors consist of two concentric conducting spherical shells of radii R1 and R2.
The shells are given equal and opposite charges +Q and –Q respectively. The electric field
between shells is directed radially outward. The magnitude of the field can be obtained by
applying Gauss law over a spherical Gaussian surface of radius r concentric with the shells.
The enclosed charge is +Q, therefore

The electric field between the conductor is given as

Integrating E along the radial path between the shells, we get

The potential difference between two conductors can be calculated using the

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formula

The potential difference between the plates is

Substituting the value of V in the capacitance formula, we get

SUMMARY

• Capacitor are energystorage device.

• An ideal capacitor act like an open circuit at steady state when a dc voltage
or current has been applied.
• The voltage across a capacitor must be a continuous function.
• The current following through a capacitor can be discontinuous.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Www Scribd .com
• Www Vedantu .com
• Www Byjus .com
• Www Uacademy .com
• Www PhysicsWallah .com
• Refer by book

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