RC time constant

The RC time constant, also called tau, the time constant (in
seconds) of an RC circuit, is equal to the product of the circuit
resistance (in ohms) and the circuit capacitance (in farads), i.e.

[seconds]

It is the time required to charge the capacitor, through the resistor,

from an initial charge voltage of zero to approximately 63.2% of
Series RC circuit
the value of an applied DC voltage, or to discharge the capacitor
through the same resistor to approximately 36.8% of its initial
charge voltage. (These values are derived from the mathematical constant e: and
.) The following formulae use it, assuming a constant voltage applied across the capacitor
and resistor in series, to determine the voltage across the capacitor against time:

Charging toward applied voltage (initially zero voltage across capacitor, constant V0
across resistor and capacitor together) [1]

Discharging toward zero from initial voltage (initially V0 across capacitor, constant zero
voltage across resistor and capacitor together)

Contents
Cutoff frequency
Delay
See also
References
External links

Cutoff frequency
The time constant is related to the cutoff frequency fc, an alternative parameter of the RC circuit, by

or, equivalently,

where resistance in ohms and capacitance in farads yields the time constant in seconds or the cutoff
frequency in Hz.
Short conditional equations using the value for :

fc in Hz = 159155 / τ in µs
τ in µs = 159155 / fc in Hz

Other useful equations are:

rise time (20% to 80%)

rise time (10% to 90%)

In more complicated circuits consisting of more than one resistor and/or capacitor, the open-circuit time
constant method provides a way of approximating the cutoff frequency by computing a sum of several RC
time constants.

Delay
The signal delay of a wire or other circuit, measured as group delay or phase delay or the effective
propagation delay of a digital transition, may be dominated by resistive-capacitive effects, depending on the
distance and other parameters, or may alternatively be dominated by inductive, wave, and speed of light
effects in other realms.

Resistive-capacitive delay, or RC delay, hinders the further increasing of speed in microelectronic integrated
circuits. When the feature size becomes smaller and smaller to increase the clock speed, the RC delay plays
an increasingly important role. This delay can be reduced by replacing the aluminum conducting wire by
copper, thus reducing the resistance; it can also be reduced by changing the interlayer dielectric (typically
silicon dioxide) to low-dielectric-constant materials, thus reducing the capacitance.

The typical digital propagation delay of a resistive wire is about half of R times C; since both R and C are
proportional to wire length, the delay scales as the square of wire length. Charge spreads by diffusion in
such a wire, as explained by Lord Kelvin in the mid nineteenth century.[2] Until Heaviside discovered that
Maxwell's equations imply wave propagation when sufficient inductance is in the circuit, this square
diffusion relationship was thought to provide a fundamental limit to the improvement of long-distance
telegraph cables. That old analysis was superseded in the telegraph domain, but remains relevant for long
on-chip interconnects.[3][4][5]

See also
Cutoff frequency and frequency response
Emphasis, preemphasis, deemphasis
Exponential decay
Filter (signal processing) and transfer function
High-pass filter, low-pass filter, band-pass filter
RL circuit, and RLC circuit
Rise time

References
 1. "Capacitor Discharging" (http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/capdis.html).
2. Andrew Gray (1908). Lord Kelvin (https://archive.org/details/lordkelvinanacc01graygoog).
Dent. p. 265 (https://archive.org/details/lordkelvinanacc01graygoog/page/n291).
3. Ido Yavetz (1995). From Obscurity to Enigma (https://books.google.com/books?id=SQszfj7bi
VMC&dq=preece+heaviside+telegraph+square&pg=PA245). Birkhäuser. ISBN 3-7643-
5180-2.
4. Jari Nurmi; Hannu Tenhunen; Jouni Isoaho & Axel Jantsch (2004). Interconnect-centric
Design for Advanced SoC and NoC (https://books.google.com/books?id=Uj7RvVE2Ln0C&d
q=vlsi+rc+delay+distributed+diffusion&pg=PA59). Springer. ISBN 1-4020-7835-8.
5. Scott Hamilton (2007). An Analog Electronics Companion (https://books.google.com/books?
id=2BntAEtXsBMC&dq=preece+distributed+heaviside+diffusion+thomson&pg=PA580).
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-68780-5.

External links
RC Time Constant Calculator (http://www.referencedesigner.com/rfcal/cal_05.php)
Conversion time constant to cutoff frequency fc and back (http://www.sengpielaudio.com/c
alculator-timeconstant.htm)
RC time constant (http://www.tpub.com/neets/book2/3d.htm)

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