HIGH FREQUENCY CAPACITOR

AIM: To compute the high frequency impedance of a 47pF capacitor whose

dielectric medium consists of aluminium oxide possessing a series loss tangent of 10 -4
and whose leads are 1.25cm long AWG 26 Cu wire Cu =64.516*106 -1 m-1 . Series
resistances of the leads Rs=4.8(f)1/2 . Inductance L=771/(f)1/2 nH, parallel leakage
resistance Re= 33.9*106 /f M= 1/Ge.
Z= [1/(Ge+jC) ] +Rs+jL
SOFTWARE USED: MATLAB 7.4
THEORY: In most RF circuits, chip capacitors find widespread applications for the
tuning of filters and matching networks as well for biasing active components such as
transistors. It is , thus, important to understand their high frequency behaviour.
Elementary circuit analysis defines capacitance for a parallel plate capacitor whose
dimensions are large compared to its plate separation as follows:
C= A/d= or A/d
Where, A=plate surface area,
d=plate separation
Ideally, there is no current flow between plates. However, at high frequencies, the
dielectric materials become lossy( i.e., there is conduction current flow). The
impedance of a capacitor thus be written as parallel combination of conductance Ge
and susceptance C.
Z= 1/Ge+jC
In this expression, the current flow at DC is due to the conductance Ge=
with diel being conductivity of dielectric.
Series loss tangent, tans=/ diel
Ge= diel A/d= A/d tans=C/ tans
PROCEDURE:
1) Launch the software Matlab 7.4 and open new m-file.
2) Find the high frequency behaviour of impedance using the formula:
Z=[1/(Ge+jC)]+Rs+jL
3) Simulate the above formula for different values of frequencies.

diel

A/d,

4) Plot the graph of frequency versus absolute impedance showing practical and
ideal response of capacitors.
CONCLUSION:
1) Upto about 103MHz, the impedance of the capacitor decreases similar to an ideal
capacitor
2) After about 3 GHz, the total impedance starts increasing due to the dominance of
lead inductance and parallel leakage resistance.

CALCULATIONS:
The inductance associated with the leads is given by:
L= RDC*(a/2)*( Cu o)1/2 = [2l/(4 a )](o / Cu f)1/2 =771/(f)1/2 nH
The series resistance of the leads is computed as:
Rs= RDC*(a/2)= [2l/(2 a Cu )](o Cu f)1/2 =4.8(f)1/2
The parallel leakage resistance is :
Re=1/(Ge)= 1/(2 fC tans)=33.9*10^6/f M
Impedance of the entire circuit is:
Z= [1/(Ge+jC) ] +Rs+jL

Matlab Program:
c = 47.*10^(-12);
f = 10^6 : 10^7 : 10^12;
r = 4.8*sqrt(f).*10^(-6);
w = 2*pi.*f;
l = 771.*10^(-9)./sqrt(f);
r1 = 33.9.*10^12./f;
n = complex(0,l.*w);
m = complex(1./r1,c.*w);
z1 = n + r + 1./m;
z = abs(z1);
loglog(f,z);
hold on;
loglog(f,1./(c.*w));