Capacitors

Capacitors
• Composed of two conductive plates separated
by an insulator (or dielectric).
– Commonly illustrated as two parallel metal plates
separated by a distance, d.

C = e A/d
where e = er eo
er is the relative dielectric constant
eo is the vacuum permittivity
 Effect of Dimensions
• Capacitance increases with
– increasing surface area of the plates,
– decreasing spacing between plates, and
– increasing the relative dielectric constant of the
insulator between the two plates.
 Types of Capacitors
• Fixed Capacitors
– Nonpolarized
• May be connected into circuit with either terminal of
capacitor connected to the high voltage side of the
circuit.
– Insulator: Paper, Mica, Ceramic, Polymer
– Electrolytic
• The negative terminal must always be at a lower
voltage than the positive terminal
– Plates or Electrodes: Aluminum, Tantalum
 Nonpolarized
• Difficult to make non-polarized capacitors that
store a large amount of charge or operate at
high voltages.
– Tolerance on capacitance values is very large

PSpice Symbol
 Electrolytic
Pspice Symbols Fabrication
 Variable Capacitors
• Cross-sectional area is changed as one set of
plates are rotated with respect to the other.

PSpice Symbol
Electrical Properties of a Capacitor
• Acts like an open circuit at steady state when
connected to a d.c. voltage or current source.
• Voltage on a capacitor must be continuous
– There are no abrupt changes to the voltage, but
there may be discontinuities in the current.
• An ideal capacitor does not dissipate energy, it
takes power when storing energy and returns
it when discharging.
 Energy Storage
• Charge is stored on the plates of the capacitor.
Equation:
Q = CV
Units:
Farad = Coulomb/Voltage
Farad is abbreviated as F
 Sign Conventions
• The sign convention used with a capacitor is the
same as for a power dissipating device.
• When current flows into the positive side of the voltage
across the capacitor, it is positive and the capacitor is
dissipating power.
• When the capacitor releases energy back into the circuit,
the sign of the current will be negative.
 Charging a Capacitor

At first, it is easy to store charge in the capacitor.

As more charge is stored on the plates of the
capacitor, it becomes increasingly difficult to place
additional charge on the plates.
Coulombic repulsion from the charge already on the
plates creates an opposing force to limit the addition of
more charge on the plates.
Voltage across a capacitor increases rapidly as charge is
moved onto the plates when the initial amount of charge on
the capacitor is small.
Voltage across the capacitor increases more slowly as it
 Discharging a Capacitor
At first, it is easy to remove charge in the capacitor.
Coulombic repulsion from charge already on the plates creates a
force that pushes some of the charge out of the capacitor once the
force (voltage) that placed the charge in the capacitor is removed (or
decreased).
As more charge is removed from the plates of the capacitor, it
becomes increasingly difficult to get rid of the small amount of
charge remaining on the plates.
Coulombic repulsion decreases as charge spreads out on the plates.
As the amount of charge decreases, the force needed to drive the
charge off of the plates decreases.
Voltage across a capacitor decreases rapidly as charge is removed from the
plates when the initial amount of charge on the capacitor is small.
Voltage across the capacitor decreases more slowly as it becomes difficult
to force the remaining charge out of the capacitor.
Current-Voltage Relationships

q  CvC
dq
iC 
dt
dvC
iC  C
dt
t1
1
vC   iC dt
C to
 Power and Energy

1 2
pC  iC vC wC  CvC
2
dvC 2
pC  CvC q
dt wC 
2C
Capacitors in Parallel
Ceq for Capacitors in Parallel
iin  i1  i2  i3  i4
dv dv
i1  C1 i2  C2
dt dt
dv i
dv
i3  C3 i4  C4
dt dt
dv dv dv dv
iin  C1  C2  C3  C4
dt dt dt dt
dv
iin  Ceq
dt
C eq  C1  C2  C3  C4
Capacitors in Series
Ceq for Capacitors in Series
vin  v1  v2  v3  v4
t1 t1
1 1
v1 
C1  idt
to
v2 
C2  idt
to
t1 i t1
1 1
v3 
C3  idt
to
v4 
C4  idt
to
t1 t1 t1 t1
1 1 1 1
vin 
C1 t idt  C2 t idt  C3 t idt  C4  idt
to
o o o

t1
1
vin 
Ceq  idt
to

C eq  1 C1   1 C2   1 C3   1 C4 
1
 Capacitor Colour Code Table

Band Digit Digit Multiplier Tolerance Tolerance Temperature

Colour A B D (T) > 10pf (T) < 10pf Coefficient
(TC)

Black 0 0 x1 ± 20% ± 2.0pF

Brown 1 1 x10 ± 1% ± 0.1pF -33×10-6

Red 2 2 x100 ± 2% ± 0.25pF -75×10-6

Orange 3 3 x1,000 ± 3% -150×10-6

Yellow 4 4 x10,000 ± 4% -220×10-6

Green 5 5 x100,000 ± 5% ± 0.5pF -330×10-6

Blue 6 6 x1,000,000 -470×10-6

Violet 7 7 -750×10-6

Grey 8 8 x0.01 +80%,-20%

White 9 9 x0.1 ± 10% ± 1.0pF

Gold x0.1 ± 5%
Silver x0.01 ± 10%
 Summary
• Capacitors are energy storage devices.
• 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 flowing through a capacitor can be discontinuous.
t1
dvC 1
iC  C vC   iC dt
dt C to

• The equations for equivalent capacitance for

capacitors in parallel capacitors in series

1
P
 S
1 
Ceq   C P Ceq   
p 1 C
 s 1 s 
• Quality Factor of a Capacitor
• The Q-factor or the quality factor of a capacitor at
the operating frequency ω is defined as the ratio of
the reactance of the capacitor to its series
resistance. Thus,
• In this case also, the Q is a dimensionless quantity.
Equation below giving the alternative definition of
Q also holds good in this case. Thus, for the circuit
on application of a sinusoidal voltage of value V
volts and frequency ω, the maximum energy
stored in the capacitor
• Where, Vm is the maximum value of voltage
across the capacitance C. But if

Where Im is the maximum value of current through C and R.

Hence, the maximum energy stored in capacitor C is
• Energy dissipated per cycle

So, the quality factor of capacitor is

Different Types of
Inductors
Introduction:

 Inductors are one of the basic components used in

electronics, inductors are extensively used in much wider
application areas like signal controlling, noise elimination,
voltage stabilization, power electronic equipment's,
automobile operations etc.

 Now a day’s, improvement of inductor design techniques

enhances significant performance on rest of the circuit.
What is Inductor?

 An inductor is also named as a reactor, coil and choke. It

is a two terminal electrical component used in various
electrical and electronic circuits.

 An inductor is used to store energy in the form of a

magnetic field. It comprises of a wire, usually twisted
into a coil.

 When a current passes through it, energy stored

temporarily in the coil.

 A supreme inductor is equal to a short circuit for DC, and

grants an opposite force to AC that depends on the
frequency of the current.
Types of Inductors
 A diverse electronic component used in a wide range of applications
requires various types of inductors. These are of different shapes,
sizes including the wire wound and multilayer inductors. Different
types of inductors include high-frequency inductors, power supply
line inductors or power inductors and inductors for general
circuits. Differentiation of the inductors is based on the type of
winding as well as the core used.
Different Types of Inductors

 Air Core Inductors

 Ferro Magnetic or Iron Core Inductors
 Ferrite Core Inductors
 Toroidal Core Inductors
 Multi Layer Inductors
 Thin Film Inductors
Air Core Inductors

 In this inductor, core is completely absent.

 These inductors offer high reluctance path for the magnetic flux,
hence less inductance.

 The air core inductors have larger coils to produce higher flux
densities.

 These are used in high frequency applications including TV and radio

receivers.
Ferro Magnetic or Iron Core Inductors

 Due to their higher magnetic permeability these have

high inductance property.

 These are high power inductors but limited in higher

frequency capacity due to the hysteresis and eddy current
losses.
Ferrite Core Inductors
 These are the different types of inductors which offer advantages of
decreased cost and low core losses at high frequencies.

 Ferrite is a metal oxide ceramic based around a mixture of Ferric

Oxide Fe2O3.

 Soft ferrites are used for the core construction to reduce the
hysteresis losses.
Toroidal Core Inductors
 In these inductors, a coil is wounded on a toroid circular former.

 Flux leakage is very low in this type of inductor.

 Special winding machines are required to design this type of

inductor.

 Sometimes ferrite core is also used to decrease the losses in this

design.
Bobbin based Inductors
 In this type of Inductor coil is wounded on the bobbin.

 Bobbin wound inductor designs vary widely in terms of power

rating, voltage and current levels, operating frequency, etc.

 These are mostly used in switch mode power supplies and power
conversion applications.
Multi Layer Inductors
 A multilayer inductor contains two conductive coil patterns.

 It is arranged in two layers in the upper part of a multi-layered body.

 The coils are connected electrically in a consecutive manner in

series to two more conductive coil patterns disposed in the lower
part of the multi-layered body.

 These are mainly used in mobile communication systems and noise

suppression applications.
Thin Film Inductors
 These are completely different from the conventional chip-type
inductors wound with copper wire.

 In this type of inductors , tiny inductors are formed using thin-film

processing to create the chip inductor for high-frequency
applications, which ranges from about nano Henry.
How Inductor Works ?
 An inductor is often referred to as AC resistor. It resists the changes in
the current and stores energy in the form of the magnetic field. These
are simple in construction, consisting of the coils of copper wire
wounded on a core. This core might be magnetic or air.
How Inductor Works?

 Magnetic cores may be toroidal or E-type cores.

 Materials like ceramic, ferrite, powered iron are used for this core.

 The coil carrying the electric current produces the magnetic field
around the conductor.

 More magnetic lines are produced if the core is placed inside the
coil, provided high permeability of the core is used.
 The magnetic field induces EMF in the coil which results in flow of
current.

 According to Lenz’s law, the induced current opposes the cause,

which is the applied voltage.

 Hence inductor opposes the change in input current that leads to

change in the magnetic field.

 This reduction of the current flow due to the induction is called

inductive reactance.
 The Inductive reactance will increase if the number of turns in the
coil is increased.

 It also stores the energy as magnetic field through charging and

discharging processes.

 It releases the energy while switching the circuit.

 Application areas of inductors include analog circuits, signal

processing, etc.
Factors affecting the Inductance of an Inductor
 Capability of producing magnetic lines is referred as inductance.
Standard unit of inductance is henry. The amount of magnetic flux
developed or inductance of different types of inductors depends on
four basic factors discussed below.

 Number of turns in a coil

 Material of the Core

 Cross section area of the Coil

 Length of the Coil

Power loss in an Inductor

 Power dissipated in inductor is mainly due to the two sources

o Inductor Core.

o Inductor Windings.
Power loss in an Inductor
Inductor core:
 Energy loss in inductor core is due to the hysteresis and eddy current
losses.

 Magnetic field applied to the magnetic material is increased, goes to

the saturation level and then decreases.

 While decreasing it doesn’t traces the original path and it causes the
hysteresis losses.

 Smaller value of the hysteresis coefficient of the core materials

results in the low hysteresis losses.
Advantages

 An inductance freely passes DC current while restricting AC current

 Tuned radio circuits or loud speaker cross-over filter networks.

 Smoothing raw rectified DC to make a smoother DC output (less

ripple).

 Limiting maximum current in fluorescent tubes.

Disadvantages

There is the restriction to passing ac current when

an easy passage is required.

Such as not easily passing high frequency in small

wires.
Applications

 Inductors have a wide variety and key applications in

electronics.
 High power applications
 Transformers
 Suppressing noise signals
 Sensors
 Filters
 Radio frequency
 Energy Storage
 Isolation
 Motors